Conversations with literary ex-cons
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Samuel Barlow
Writer Samuel Barlow talks with Cullen Thomas in the prison where he was held for half a century.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Billy Sinclair
Former death-row inmate, legendary jailhouse lawyer, and co-editor for the award-winning The Angolite newspaper Billy Sinclair looks back on his prison experience and discusses what his priorities are now.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Vickie Stringer
Vickie Stringer talks about her first novel Let That Be the Reason, her Triple Crown Publishing venture, life in prison, and making hip-hop literature.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Jack Gantos
Jack Gantos discusses the sense of “delusional invincibility” he had in 1970s New York that led him to prison—and then on to a career as an award-winning children’s book author.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Mitchell S. Jackson
Cullen Thomas sits down with Mitchell S. Jackson to discuss The Residue Years, overlooked and ignored communities, studying with Gordon Lish, and writing dangerously.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Billy Hayes
Billy Hayes, the writer of Midnight Express, candidly discusses his memoir about escaping from a Turkish prison in the 1970s, the pros and cons of having your story adapted by Hollywood, and what the War on Drugs has meant for…
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Patricia McConnel
Patricia McConnel, who served time in a federal prison in the 1950s, sits down to talk about her past, and about Sing Soft, Sing Loud
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“Orange Is The New Black”
If you’ve been keeping tabs on Netflix’s new brand of television, you’ve probably been anticipating the premiere of Orange is the New Black. What you may not know is that the series, about a woman who is incarcerated after she is…
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Matthew Parker
You know what struck me about Matthew Parker, one-time homeless wanderer, former drug addict with more than ten years of prison under his belt, between his ears, now a writer and graphic author?
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Conversations With Literary Ex-Cons: Piper Kerman
Piper Kerman is the author of the memoir Orange is the New Black, a story of how, years after running money for an international heroin gang, she was indicted, convicted, and did time in a federal women’s prison.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: J.M. Benjamin
J.M. Benjamin spent more than twelve years in state and federal prisons in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. But he read and read in prison, and eventually wrote more than a dozen urban fiction novels.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Neil White
Fifteen years after serving my time, I still think about prison and the ways in which it might have affected me.