For all you literature buffs out there…
Channeling Mark Twain by Carol Muske-Dukes is a must-read if you’re into poetry, literature, prison politics, and social justice. Holly, the protagonist, finds herself in complex situations where her ideals around social justice and feminism collide with material lives lived inside and outside a women’s prison walls. Fast-paced narratives are woven into the fabric of the poetic novel, the history of poetry and poets, and high/low brow poetry. This book will push you to make intertextual readings with familiar poems and research those unfamiliar to you – but particularly if you are a die-hard social justice warrior, it will make for great conversation about the age-old questions and debates about “power” “oppression” and “justice.” Everyone will enjoy being carried into the prison on Riker’s Island, if they haven’t been there themselves, to critically rethink the problems in our society and criminal justice system…and by default, our education system, social class, race, gender, and sexuality.
