@prison-stories.bsky.social
My award-winning Prison Short Stories, all written at San Quentin. 🖋️ Joyce Carol Oates published one. I served 39 years, 23 of them at San Quentin. There, I discovered that words can heal.
Are you interested in a story involving people in a prison hospice?
“The jail has, in fact, been my abode of peace. It has given me the opportunity to do some soul-searching and silent contemplation.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
“My prison writings gave birth to my freedom. I wrote because I could not speak, and I had to speak.”
- Jean Genet
“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.”
- Vaclav Havel
“I became a writer because it was the only way to escape the walls. The page gave me a kind of parole.”
- Eldridge Cleaver
“Bless you, prison, for having been in my life. It was there I discovered that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor classes, but through every human heart.”
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. … I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
“I read and wrote letters as if they were lifelines; each word mattered. There, I learned the true value of thought and silence.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“In prison, you come face to face with time. There is nothing more terrifying. But also, if you use it wisely, nothing more powerful.”
- Nelson Mandela
“All my major works have been written in prison… I would recommend prison not only to aspiring writers but to aspiring politicians too.”
— Jawaharlal Nehru
One of my award winning short stories.
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There’s only one which has been placed into print: The Distance Between Right & Wrong.”
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
— John Kenneth Galbraith
“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
Powerful, true-to-life prison short stories exploring redemption, loss, and hope. A gripping, unforgettable read. a.co/d/dBhvgZL
Thank you. Please leave a review on Bluesky.
KRON 4 San Francisco reports on Metallica’s free concert in San Quentin State Prison (2003)
Yeah, I was there, talked with Hetfield, and you saw me being interviewed.
The People's Union USA, a grassroots group, is calling on Americans to join a national boycott by not shopping for 24 hours on Friday.
Well-written, poignant
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2025
"A body lying in a coffin somehow didn’t seem so dead, but the image of your brother being burned up with fire told of a certain and final end."
Raw, authentic emotions.
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The photo was the day of my parole after 39 years. An awesome day!
Just finished "The Distance Between Right and Wrong" by Ken Brydon. I highly recommend - you won't be disappointed!
In one moment, "violence filled the space between us" and in the next, "there's a whole lot of forgiveness in God."
@prison-stories.bsky.social #booksky #WritingCommunity
Prison Short Stories read at San Quentin by the Brother's in Pen Creative Writing Class.
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