After more than four years of development, Books to Prisoners is incredibly proud to announce the arrival of our first publication: Dear Books to Prisoners: Letters from the Incarcerated.
From expressions of the pure joy of reading, through to the frustration of encountering chronic library closures and musings on the experience of incarceration, this coffee table book showcases prisoners’ engagement with the written word. To create Dear Books to Prisoners, we solicited special letters from our incarcerated patrons, who wrote to express the meaning of access to books inside prisons. We organized these letters into six sections, each focusing on an aspect of reading, education, and incarceration. Original letters are reproduced in full alongside excerpts from letters and information about the history, operations, and context of prison book programs across the country. Dear Books to Prisoners also features:
A foreword by Dan Berger (associate professor at the University of Washington Bothell and creator of the Washington Prison History Project);
An introduction by Michelle Dillon (Books to Prisoners board member and former Books to Prisoners program coordinator) and Bo-Won Keum (co-editor and book designer);
An afterword by Andy Chan (Books to Prisoners board member since 1994).
Dear Books to Prisoners is fresh from the publisher, and is available for only $25* or can be provided as a complimentary gift with donations of $200 or more. Learn more about making a financial donation to procure a copy of this book and support the 12,000 packages of books we send to people in prisons across the country every year: https://www.bookstoprisoners.net/donate/
(*Please note that books are provided with a suggested donation of $25 or more. To arrange for this procurement, please contact bookstoprisoners@live.com)
Other information: ISBN 9780939306152. Paperback, quarto to folio, 200p. unpaginated, perfect bound w/ stitched groupings. Printed in Tallinn, Estonia; published by Left Bank Books.