Review: Olympia Books to Prisoners minizines
Reviewed by A. Iwasa
Books to prisoner programs seek to offset the dehumanizing effects of mass incarceration by sending free literature to people inprisoned across the United States. Oly BtP also engages in distributing literature on the outside to spread the word about what they do and why.
Tandem Reading Book Recs for Abolition
by Natasha Giblin, Oly BtP collective member
Tandem reading as described by Giblin “is reading two or more books at the same time, that focus on the same topic.”
In this ‘zine, Giblin presents book blurb style reviews for two books at a time, one fictional, the other non-, then provides another blurn to connect the books thematically. The prison industrial complex, child welfare system and women prisoners’ experiences are the topics covered.
Mass Incarceration: What do you really know about it?
by Jasper Llee, Oly BtP collective member
Similarly, Llee created a short reading list with blurbs for six different books about the prison industrial complex, though this time all six and non-fiction.
Let’s Talk Prisons…
by Anna Champagne, Oly BtP
This ‘zine is more of an introduction, a look at what’s wrong with the prison system in the US in the first place.