A friend recently told me he had just finished The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander's influential book on the racial origins of our prison system, and he wanted my opinion on what to read next. The literature on mass incarceration is extensive, but here are a few books that had a big impact on me. … Continue reading A Little Library of Prison Books, or, What to Read After Finishing “The New Jim Crow”
Category: Prison
My Adventure with “The New Jim Crow”
The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander's 2010 racial critique of mass incarceration, is back in the news, thanks to a New York Times article on the surprising decision by North Carolina prisons to remove it from a banned books list. I had an adventure with that book, myself. A few years ago, I offered to … Continue reading My Adventure with “The New Jim Crow”
Garbage Out, Garbage In
The syllabus for ENG101 "[r]equires students to produce a minimum of 20 pages of writing." With six sections, and a rough average of 20 students per section, that amounts to a minimum of 2400 pages per semester. My Penguin Classics edition of Moby Dick is only 625, not including the "Explanatory Notes." Now I'm getting … Continue reading Garbage Out, Garbage In
On Gifts Received from Students
"Next to things of necessity, the rule for a gift is, that we might convey to some person that which properly belonged to his character, and was easily associated with him in thought...The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; … Continue reading On Gifts Received from Students
The Wrong Font 