UB to present panel on prison writing

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Dashiell Hammett, Oscar Wilde, and Jack London: In addition to a shared literary heritage, they were all incarcerated during their lifetimes. The three are also among the authors and works to be featured in a panel discussion and book exhibit examining the intellectual and creative contributions of incarcerated authors presented by the University at Buffalo Prison Studies Certificate.

Other sponsors include the Department of Sociology and Criminology, the Department of English, the Department of Comparative Literature, and the UB Libraries.

The month-long book exhibit, which opens April 1 in Lockwood Memorial Library on UB’s North Campus, is a companion to the Prison Writing Panel on April 7 at 5 p.m. in room 305 of the Oscar A. Silverman Library, also on the North Campus.

The event is free and open to the public.

Both the exhibit and panel discussion, like other events presented this semester by the Prison Studies Certificate, are meant to challenge common perceptions about incarcerated individuals, according to Mary Nell Trautner, PhD, associate professor of sociology and criminology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, and director of the UB College in Prison Program.

“With this event, we’re highlighting some of the literary and intellectual contributions incarcerated individuals have made to society,” says Trautner. “I think there’s a tendency to see people in prison as defined by the worst thing they have done, but this collection and panel reminds us that these people are also often thinkers, creators and contributors to society.”

Susan Weeber, PhD, clinical associate professor of English at UB, will moderate the panel that will include:

• Paul Feigenbaum, PhD, associate of professor of English at UB. Feigenbaum has experience teaching creative writing in prisons and has put together a collection of writing with people incarcerated in Florida.
• Doran Larson, PhD, Edward North Professor of Literature at Hamilton College. Larson taught creative writing for 10 years inside Attica Correctional Facility and is founder and director of the American Prison Writing Archive.
• Mark Nowak, PhD, professor of English at Manhattanville University. Nowak, a 2010 Guggenheim fellow, is an award-winning poet and social critic who wrote the introduction to “When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journal,” edited by Celes Tisdale.
• TheArthur A. Duncan II, alum of the UB School of Law, and who was once incarcerated, is an attorney and motivational speaker, and the author of “Felon Attorney.”
• Latisha Randle, a formerly incarcerated Buffalo-based life-coach, is an author and mentor.

Some of the books in the exhibit, organized by Carolyn Klotzbach-Russell, UB social sciences librarian, and those to be discussed by the panel, might be familiar to visitors, such as “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., which became an important text in the civil rights movement; or Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom.”

But there are surprises as well. 

In addition to Hammett, Wilde and London (who was incarcerated in the former Erie County Penitentiary on Buffalo’s lower west side), other authors who wrote either while incarcerated or following their release include e.e. cummings, Henry David Thoreau, Marco Polo, Angela Davis, Ezra Pound, and O. Henry.

“I hope that visitors will walk away understanding that incarceration is not the end of someone’s potential,” says Klotzbach-Russell. “It can be a turning point that leads to profound intellectual and personal growth.”

Breaking down false divides and stereotypes surrounding incarceration are among the goals of the exhibit and panel.

“People are more than their worst mistakes, whether they’ve been incarcerated or not, and we want to create an environment that recognizes the full humanity of incarcerated individuals and the contributions they make,” says Trautner. “Visitors will see writers featured in the exhibit and hear about them in the panel that went on to become influential thinkers and activists.”

Their stories remind us that redemption and transformation are always possible, according to Trautner.

“We might think that a prison sentence defines a person’s worth, but the exhibit and panel discussion demonstrate how creativity, intellect and resilience exist behind bars just as they do everywhere else.”