WVU Press has announced the release of three new books on a range of subjects. The books include “This Book Is Free and Yours to Keep: Notes from the Appalachian Prison Book Project,” “Softie: Stories” and “Indigenous Ecocinema: Decolonizing Media Environments.”
Closest to home is “This Book Is Free and Yours to Keep: Notes from the Appalachian Prison Book Project,” a collection of letters, essays and artwork by people in prison. Curated by volunteers from the Appalachian Prison Book Project — Connie Banta, Kristin DeVault-Juelfs, Destinee Harper, Katy Ryan and Ellen Skirvin — the collection offers insight into the reading lives of people in confinement, and demonstrates the ways that books and art can lessen isolation and build connections.
Since its beginning in a 2004 graduate course at WVU, the Appalachian Prison Book Project has evolved into a regional leader in the movement for educational access and equity. The local nonprofit mails free books to people incarcerated in West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Maryland. APBP receives more than 200 letters a week requesting books and has sent over 70,000 books.
Simultaneously communicating the vital importance of access to books and education, and conveying the power of community, the letters sent by incarcerated people spark conversations about racism, poverty and incarceration while shedding light on the movement for state violence accountability. This book elucidates the violence and neglect perpetuated by carceral systems and offers a way forward based on solidarity and collaboration.
“Softie: Stories” is Megan Howell’s debut collection of short fiction. In beautifully melancholy stories of magical realism, the women and girls in these stories transform their bodies and test their sanity, trying to find meaning in the loneliest of places. The book presents powerful stories about women and girls who are trying to escape their own minds, only to realize they are trapped in the culture that formed them. “Softie” has already racked up some impressive critical acclaim, including a coveted starred review in Publishers Weekly.
“Indigenous Ecocinema: Decolonizing Media Environments” by Salma Monana is scholarly work in the Salvaging the Anthropocene series. The book examines the environmental dimensions of cinema made by Indigenous peoples through an exploration of the archive of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto — the largest Indigenous film and media festival in the world. Monani is a professor of environmental studies at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.