Only a few books on the shelves would have resonated with my friend as Taylor’s did. This North Carolina prison had a library, but like a typical prison library, it was mostly populated by westerns, romance novels, and issues of National Geographic from the 80s and 90s. The narrative deeply resonated with him, and in the coming months, he devoured all Taylor’s books as fast as I could get them. One week, I brought in Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry (1977). Because he wanted to keep improving his literacy skills, we started reading books for fun and discussing them. He did all the exercises in the workbook provided by the literacy nonprofit and quickly scored high enough to begin the classes. I went to this minimum security prison once a week for several years in order to tutor people who scored too low on a reading test required to take the classes offered by the local community college. It’s set back from the road, and the guard house is just a corrugated roof on skinny metal legs. The building is inconspicuous, tucked in between the highway and a bank, surrounded by fast food and gas stations on a local route. You’d hardly notice the barbed wire driving by. 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony.
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