How cool is this? Jo, who works at Cape and Cowl Comics in Oakland, saw one of our displays at Pegasus Bookstores in Berkeley. He wants to support our efforts so he contacted us to find out if PLP would partner with Cape and Cowl Comics too! This was an easy YES as we receive many requests for graphic novels but it’s really hard for us to source them.

So, next time you’re in Oakland, be sure to stop by and see the store. It’s a nice environment with an amazing selection for you to peruse. Thanks again to Jo and store owner Eitan Manhoff for making this happen.

We’re welcoming in the new year with some more uplifting letters and warm holiday greetings from book recipients. It’s always a treat to pull a letter from the current stack and find artwork or kind words from someone who appreciates our efforts. It’s also gratifying because it confirms our books are making it into the hands of eager readers.

We sometimes get requests for very specific books that we stock via remainder orders. Usually someone has seen the book because another incarcerated person at their facility has received it. Word gets out! Sometimes there’s a flurry of letters from a specific prison because our program information has been passed along. We also stamp the inside of books with our address so even if the book recipient doesn’t receive the invoice with the nice note from a volunteer that we send (some prisons are really strict -ugh) they will know that the books came from us. Whatever it takes!

We love getting feedback from book recipients. This arrived in the mail recently and we are sharing it here with the permission of author.

Here’s some wonderful bead art sent to us, as a ‘thank you’ from an incarcerated person receiving books from the PLP.

We’re continuing to work through the pandemic here at Prisoners Literature Project, with individual co-ordinators answering letters solo for safety reasons. And we’re still getting lots of thank you letters from grateful prisoners.

So we thought we’d present three of them here – so we can pass along the sense of gratitude prisoners have when we’re able to get them books with your kind help.

So please keep supporting us, and we’ll keep getting books out to incarcerated people in these trying times.

The Belly Of The Beast documentary, “An exposé of human rights abuses in women’s prisons, highlighting modern-day eugenics & reproductive injustice”, has announced a holiday book drive in association with the Prisoners Literature Project.

Here’s the full information from the film’s Twitter feed:

More information on the documentary itself and how to view it is available on the film’s official website. We’d like to thank them for their kind partnership.

Sadly, the U.S. Postal Service – which we find vital for sending books to prisoners – continues to be under attack.

So the Prisoners Literature Project would like to thank two different organizations who made kind donations to the PLP, so that we could use them on postage for ‘books to prisoners’ mail.

Firstly, the crew at IWantMyHoney.TV raised $3,000 for the PLP via their super cool ‘Save The USPS’ T-shirt benefit they ran in September. Thanks so much to them.

(Also, keep checking out the IWantMyHoney Instagram for regular T-shirt drops, a number of which are social justice related!)

Secondly, the F Mag & Kingsboro Press mail art auction on eBay – which auctioned off many pieces of art on envelopes that were sent through the mail – raised thousands of dollars for multiple recipients.

PLP was lucky enough to be pledged $800 from that auction – thanks to everyone involved in that – here’s some info about the art from the (now ended) auction.

Finally, many of you have donated money or sent stamps, so thanks again for this! (If you do want to send us stamps, you can do so to the 2022 Blake St. address, but please try to send $1 or $2 stamps if possible! Thanks.)

Although we started it a few months ago, we haven’t been publicizing our Amazon wishlist for ‘special requests’ too much.

But since our co-ordinators and ‘special request’ fulfillers are still hard at work (albeit one person at a time due to COVID restrictions), we thought we’d put out a more specific call for people to buy books from this list.

Each of the titles is listed with a priority and the amount of needed copies, so if you’d like to buy one or multiple, we’d love you to help out!

Prisoners will be really happy to receive one of these practical, useful, or inspiring books that can change their outlook during a tough time for prisons, many of whom are affected very badly by the COVID outbreak.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sadly, PLP is still out of action because COVID-19 means we can’t meet and pick/pack books.

But a couple of co-ordinators are going in individually to send out just a few packages, & Gina kindly passed along this wonderful thank-you letter from a prisoner. (The start is attached, and the rest transcribed below.)

“To whom it may concern, Wow: first off, I would really like to thank you all for the amazing gift of these books. You will never know how much this has meant to me to receive not only the books, but your thoughts and wishes.

I am a lifer – I’ve been down now almost 19 years, and these are the very first books I’ve gotten…

Just the simple fact that you take the time out of your busy day to do this for convicts who are viewed by the public as unfit or not worth trying to help or educate is truly uplifting to the to the hopeless ordeal I find myself inI’m in a max prison with only my thoughts and these books to keep me company, so I would hope you can truly understand the need I have for such a blessing like this. So thank you once again…

I just recently read a few books that have not only lifted my spirits but changed my outlook on life, so please keep them coming.”