This issue of the Journal features responses to a memoir by Austrian neurologist Viktor Frankl about survival and meaning in the Nazi concentration camps. With its themes of human agency and purpose in the face of dehumanization and despair, Frankl’s book has become popular in prisons and jails, and we were eager to share this poignant text with I/O Book Club participants.
The responses in this volume show how readers were inspired by and connected to the ideas presented in the book. We found it rewarding to read such thoughtful pieces, and hope you’ll also appreciate these thought-provoking contributions to existing conversations around this classic text, and to complex understandings of human freedom.
We hope you enjoy the reflections and insight in this journal, and if you know someone incarcerated in NC or SC who might enjoy being part of the I/O Book Club, drop us a line at ashevilleprisonbooks@gmail.com with their info and we’ll include them next time!
P.S. The cover art for this edition of the Journal was done by inside reader James Anderson; many thanks to James for contributing this gorgeous design to the Journal!
Responses to the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison from readers on both sides of the bars.
We’re delighted to share the third volume of the Inside/Outside Book Club Journal!
This issue of the Journal features responses to the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison from readers on both sides of the bars, and excerpts from scholarly resources to provide historical background for the world Morrison’s characters inhabit.
Special shout out to the Black Experience Book Group for inviting us to share in your conversation on this incredible book, and for helping to enrich the pages of this journal.
We hope you enjoy the reflections and insight in this journal, and if you know someone incarcerated in NC or SC who might enjoy being part of the I/O Book Club, drop us a line at ashevilleprisonbooks@gmail.com with their info and we’ll include them next time!
The current volume, which includes responses from 14 readers, is a testament to how much this project has grown since it began.
We’re thrilled to announce and share the second volume of the I/O Book Club Journal!
The purpose of the I/O book club is to bring readers together across the bars. Each cycle, we select a book and send it to participants inside, and our collective also reads and discusses it. Then, all participants may contribute responses to the book for publication in a journal that is shared with everyone. Through the journal, each participant can learn from and reflect on each other’s perspective and can keep the conversation going.
This cycle, we read Ayn Rand’s Anthem, chosen for its special significance to one of our collective members, and for its theme of liberation.
The current volume of the journal, which includes responses from 14 readers, is a testament to how much this project has grown since it began.
We hope this project opens the way for dialogue that becomes organic, and that engagement through literature can serve as the basis for growing relationships and friendships over time (and likely more than one vigorous debate!).
Already, we’ve seen these conversations span philosophical differences in many interesting ways. We’ve laughed and nodded our heads while reading responses, and also confronted content that doesn’t reflect our own values or opinions, and had to sit with what it means create this kind of space for open dialogue. Each time we put out a journal we learn something new — about the people involved, and the process itself.
We know this project will continue to evolve and look forward to presenting volume 3 in 2021!
We’re delighted to report that we just mailed out the first-ever edition of the Asheville Prison Books I/O Book Club Journal, which connects readers on both sides of the bars to great literature and to each other!
An idea takes shape
Early last year, our collective began discussing possibilities for facilitating dialogue between the people to whom we send books throughout the year. We wanted to provide the experience of a book club–the exchange of perspectives and dialogue–to those inside who otherwise might not have access to such an activity.
While discussing literature is a common past-time behind bars, such conversations tend to happen between friends who pass a book around, or under the auspices of prison education programs. But in this era of extended lock-downs and long-term solitary confinement, such programming is unavailable for thousands of people trapped in their cells 20-24 hours a day (sometimes for months or even years at a time).
Additionally, we envisioned a group of individuals from different facilities and backgrounds who might not normally converse about a shared reading experience.
Reaching out and starting up
With this as a starting point, APB reached out to potential participants to see who wanted to join the club. Then we chose and provided copies of a book, Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson, that we thought participants would find interesting and challenging, and would spark some good conversations.
This 1988 speculative fiction novel imagines what the world would have been like if the raid on Harpers Ferry had been successful, touching off the largest uprising of enslaved people in history.
At the same time, members of our collective read the book and met in person to discuss it. We then solicited responses to the book (both from those inside and from members of our collective), for transcription and compilation into a short journal. Those who wished to contribute to the journal submitted their comments and reflections; we were so excited, having no idea what to expect!
What we got were reactions both humorous and heartfelt, personal and thought-provoking. For instance, this response from James:
“[This book] got me thinking about how the legacy of slavery, and racism had crippled this country. It also got me to think how far along in technology, medicine and science we would be today, if the cancer of slavery and racism didn’t hold us back.”
Adding a little flare
In addition to transcribing and printing written responses, our collective brought an artistic touch to theI/O Journal by using collage for the layout and design:
Two pages from the I/O Book Club Journal, featuring responses from participants and collage artwork by various APB volunteers.
Completed copies of I/O are now making their way through the mail back to participants, and we hope they all reach their destinations (unfortunately it is all too common for mail-room staff to tamper with and outright destroy incoming prisoner mail). We also the hope contributors are pleased with the dynamic representation of their words, and engaged by the writings of fellow participants.
More on the horizon
This was an exciting project for our collective to undertake, and we plan to do it again! There are lots of ways to get involved with I/O, so we encourage folks to drop us a line at ashevilleprisonbooks@gmail.com if you’d like to jump in for the next round.
We’ll be showcasing more artwork and responses from the journal in the following weeks, so be sure to check back here and on social media to see more of I/O!
** Special thanks to Firestorm Books & Coffee for helping source copies of Fire on the Mountain for this book club – we could not have made this project happen without you! **
