Freebird book drive for NYC Books Through Bars
While NYC Books Through Bars operating out of Freebird's basement is currently limiting in-person volunteering and drop offs due to COVID-19, book requests continue to pour in from prisons around the country: nearly 300 per week. In response to the challenges of accepting those donations during the pandemic, we have started a monthly program in which specific, in-demand titles can be purchased through Freebird at a discount.
BTB Bundle: Voices of the Incarcerated (Jackson, Dawkins, Wideman)
$51.00
$20.00
Freebird's July 2024 picks include Mitchell Jackson's Survival Math, Curtis Dawkins's The Graybar Hotel, and John Edgar Wideman's Brothers and Keepers: $20 for three books
Please note that when Square processes your order they describe it as a "digital delivery". That does not refer to way the books will be delivered to incarcerated readers. Your purchase will go towards NYC Books Through Bars fulfilling requests with physical copies of the aforementioned titles.
July 2024's pick for NYC Books Through Bars
For Freebird's 20th anniversary--and with the help of Scribner/Simon & Schuster--
$20 gets three books sent to incarcerated readers (61% off retail)*
With special thanks to Scribner (the publisher of these three titles), we are able to focus the bundle on writers who themselves have experienced incarceration. Mitchell Jackson began his acclaimed literary career shortly after being paroled from an Oregon prison in 1998. He is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist, novelist, and memoirist, whose book Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family explores gangs and guns, near-death experiences, sex work, masculinity, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle,” and the destructive power of addiction—all framed within his personal story, his family, and his community.
Curtis Dawkins is currently serving a life sentence in Michigan, where he has been actively writing and publishing fiction since the mid-2000s. Those stories were collected into the 2017 book, The Graybar Hotel, critically praised for revealing the idiosyncrasies, tedium, and desperation of long-term incarceration—a searing description of the struggle to keep one's soul alive in the face of daunting daily challenges.
For purchasing the above two titles, Scribner will match with a copy of John Edgar Wideman's classic work, Brothers and Keepers. A gripping, unsettling account, Brothers and Keepers weighs the bonds of blood, affection, and guilt that connect Wideman and his brother and measures the distance that lies between them. “If you care at all about brotherhood and dignity…this is a must-read book” (The Denver Post). In includes an afterword by his brother Robert Wideman, released in 2019 after more than fifty years in prison.
*Each purchased bundle will be delivered directly to Books Through Bars so that they can fulfill requests from incarcerated readers. If you wish to purchase one of these titles for yourself, you can go to https://bookshop.org/shop/FreebirdBooks.
For Freebird's 20th anniversary--and with the help of Scribner/Simon & Schuster--
$20 gets three books sent to incarcerated readers (61% off retail)*
With special thanks to Scribner (the publisher of these three titles), we are able to focus the bundle on writers who themselves have experienced incarceration. Mitchell Jackson began his acclaimed literary career shortly after being paroled from an Oregon prison in 1998. He is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist, novelist, and memoirist, whose book Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family explores gangs and guns, near-death experiences, sex work, masculinity, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle,” and the destructive power of addiction—all framed within his personal story, his family, and his community.
Curtis Dawkins is currently serving a life sentence in Michigan, where he has been actively writing and publishing fiction since the mid-2000s. Those stories were collected into the 2017 book, The Graybar Hotel, critically praised for revealing the idiosyncrasies, tedium, and desperation of long-term incarceration—a searing description of the struggle to keep one's soul alive in the face of daunting daily challenges.
For purchasing the above two titles, Scribner will match with a copy of John Edgar Wideman's classic work, Brothers and Keepers. A gripping, unsettling account, Brothers and Keepers weighs the bonds of blood, affection, and guilt that connect Wideman and his brother and measures the distance that lies between them. “If you care at all about brotherhood and dignity…this is a must-read book” (The Denver Post). In includes an afterword by his brother Robert Wideman, released in 2019 after more than fifty years in prison.
*Each purchased bundle will be delivered directly to Books Through Bars so that they can fulfill requests from incarcerated readers. If you wish to purchase one of these titles for yourself, you can go to https://bookshop.org/shop/FreebirdBooks.
PLEASE NOTE that the books purchased through Freebird are ones that will be delivered directly to Books Through Bars so that they can fulfill requests from incarcerated readers.
Looking for a book for yourself? Check out our page at Bookshop.org, including lists of recommended reads from Piper Kerman, Victoria Law, Albert Woodfox, Victor LaValle, Mat Johnson, and others! Want to give a gift card? Freebird has e-gift cards available here for your birthday and holiday needs (and to redeem for future book drives)! To get updates on future selections, subscribe to Freebird's newsletter |
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