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Brian Daldorph first entered the Douglas County Jail classroom in
Lawrence, Kansas, to teach a writing class on Christmas Eve 2001.
His last class at the jail for the foreseeable future was mid-March
2020, right before the COVID-19 lockdown; the virus is taking a
heavy toll in confined communities like nursing homes and prisons.
Words Is a Powerful Thing is Daldorph's record of teaching at the
jail for the two decades between 2001 and 2020, showing how the
lives of everyone involved in the class-but especially the inmates
who came to class week after week-benefited from what happened
every Thursday afternoon in that jail classroom, where for two
hours inmates and instructor became a circle of ink and blood,
writing together, reciting their poems, telling stories, and having
a few good laughs. Words Is a Powerful Thing brings into the light
the works of fifty talented inmate writers whose work deserves
attention. Their poetry speaks of 'what really matters' to all of
us and gives the reader sustained insight into the role that
creativity plays in aiding survival and bringing positive change
for inmates, and, in turn, for all of us. Daldorph's account of his
teaching experience not only takes the reader inside the daily life
at a county jail but also sets the work done in the writing class
within the larger context of inmate education is the US corrections
system, where education is often one of the few lifelines available
to inmates. Words Is a Powerful Thing provides a teaching guide for
instructors working with incarcerated writers, offering an
extensive examination of both the challenges and benefits. When
Brian Daldorph decided the story of his classroom experiences and
the great writing produced by the inmates deserved to be told to
wider audiences, he struggled with how to bring it all together.
Not long after, an inmate wrote a poem titled 'Words Is a Powerful
Thing,' offering Daldorph a title, concept, and purpose: to show
that the poetry of inmates speaks not just to other inmates but to
all of us.
"The sonnet has evolved in the last hundred years into a more and
more versatile poetic vehicle in the ingenious hands of such poets
as Brian Daldorph. His new full-length collection of sonnets, From
the Inside Out, might serve as a lexicon for the form, providing
every variation of rhythm and rhyme scheme. Each sonnet presents a
small verse drama narrated through or by protagonists, mostly
ordinary men and women, telling, examining, trying to understand
the story of their lives." --From Phil Miller, editor of The Same
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