Like most, if not all university presses, WVU Press is mission-oriented organization with a reputation for publishing works of enduring cultural value. And often these focus on underserved populations and feature voices that are often overlooked or outright ignored.  This Book Is Free and Yours to Keep: Notes from the Appalachian Prison Book Project, edited by Connie Banta, Kristin DeVault-Juelfs, Destinee Harper, Katy Ryan, and Ellen Skirvin, documents the requests for books submitted by imprisoned people for books. Culled from over 70,000 letters received by the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP), this epistolary volume captures the variety of requests from individuals incarcerated in Appalachia.

“I really can’t explain the joy you guys bring us hopeless convicts. They say the man that reads lives a thousand lives. I agree. I have been locked up nine years day for day come October 30. Here in TN, but I’ve spent nights (and days) in Westeros and Slaver’s Bay, in New York City, in Feudal Japan alongside Toranaga and the Anjin-San, on the moons of planets in galaxies with names I can’t pronounce and apparently can’t spell. So thanks again. Even just writing to you guys makes this ole Mingo County boy’s heart beat a little stronger. Life is what you give. You put life in an envelope or box, put a stamp on it and mail it out. Thanks for giving life. P.S. Go Mountaineers!”

—Ashley Van Natter

Books have the ability to take us anywhere and perhaps nowhere is this more important than to people in the carceral system. Confined to a finite space with very limited opportunities for engagement, books can offer a crucial lifeline. APBP receives about 200 letters a week with requests for reading materials. The most requested genres are dictionaries and reference works.

In addition to providing books, APBP also organizes prison book clubs, pays tuition costs for and individuals taking WVU courses, and awards scholarships to released people enrolled in a West Virginia college or university.

“A few months ago I received 2 books and I was amazed to find out that your organization truly existed and gave out free books! Your organization has made it a bit easier for me because I’m big on education, knowledge, and wisdom. I currently have a huge chunk of time, but I count this as a blessing because I can use this time to catch up on my studies. I actually want to be a mathematician, a scientist, and a scholar. I know it’s pretty much impossible to know everything, but I can’t help but want to know everything. By the time I get released I’m hoping I can tackle at least 2 of my goals. I truly appreciate your assistance in receiving books, and I hope I can continue getting books from your services.”

—C. S. Mars

And the group also engages the public in conversations about the prison industrial complex and transformative justice.  Their motto is “Challenging mass incarceration through books, education, and community engagement.” They emphasize the belief that education is a basic human right and that people who are incarcerated should have access to books, both recreational and educational. “Central to everything we do is the belief that education is a human right and that building community is essential to social change.” ABPB grew out of a graduate course on the history of prisons and prison writing in the United States taught at West Virginia University in 2004; it now serves over 200 prisons and jails across six states in the region – Kentucky, Maryland Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

“Now, with something simple as a book, I can see a world beyond my incarceration, beyond my despair and loneliness. How is this possible? Is it magic? Is it God? I don’t believe it is either. No, I believe it is the result of a select few who have discovered that feeding the good inside of themselves provides a nourishing euphoria like nothing else in this world. And maybe . . .just maybe . . . by such an act of selfless good, maybe behind these four walls reconnect to the good wolf inside of them and seek a path that nourishes that good wolf. Not everything we do will change the world, but there are choices we can make to change our world. Let’s change our world!”

—Michael Underhill

Those of us who had the opportunity to work on This Book is Free and Yours to Keep came to view its realization as a mission of our own. Both the cover and the interior went through several rounds of editing and visual adjustment in a concerted effort to strike the right balance of tone, sensitivity, and awareness of cultural messaging in choices as seemingly trivial as typeface selection. The goal was to convey the totality of the experience of those involved with the APBP, on all sides of the transaction—prisoners, volunteers, administrators, and family members. Working with the prisoners’ words day after day was sometimes heartbreaking, often thought-provoking, and occasionally just entertaining, their voices quirky and human:

“Thank you for helping us in these circumstances.

• Histories of baseball prior to 1950 (Ruth, Gehrig, Rizzuto)
• People who rode passenger trains and street cars pre 1950 including sports teams; the western bound Orphan Train, etc.
• Memoirs of NY Street Arabs—Golden, Canter, Greeley, Sarnoff, Covello, Lefcourt, etc.
• Bios of candymen (Hershey, Mars, etc.), stores (Field, Stewart, Woolworth, Wanamaker, etc.),
  railroad magnates, restaurants (Johnson, etc.), fast-food (Kroc, Thomas, etc.) and food (Heinz)
• Non-fiction U.S. History—growth of cities, inventions, construction
• History Press, Arcadia, historical photos (USA)

We get out 4½ hours a week so I can give books to others.”

—Bob

https://https://appalachianprisonbookproject.org/
https://prisonbookprogram.org/prisonbooknetwork/