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b"Join PEN America and Haymarket Books for the launch of The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting a Writer\\u2019s Life In Prison.\\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------\\n\\nThe Sentences That Create Us provides a road map for incarcerated people and their allies to have a thriving writing life behind bars\\u2014and shared beyond the walls\\u2014that draws on the unique insights of more than fifty contributors, most themselves justice-involved, to offer advice, inspiration and resources. And it's not just for those on the inside. Michelle Alexander said in her blurb: \\u201cThis is one of the best books on writing that I've ever read.\\u201d This transformative collection can serve anyone seeking hard won lessons and inspiration for their own creative\\u2014and human\\u2014journey.\\n\\nJoin editor Caits Meissner for a conversation with contributor Reginald Dwayne Betts, hosted by author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.\\n\\nOrder the book from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1766-the-sentences-that-create-us\\n---------------------------------------------------------------------\\nSpeakers:\\n\\nReginald Dwayne Betts is the founder of Freedom Reads, a first-of-its-kind organization working to radically transform access to literature in prison.\\n\\nIn October 2018, the New York Times Magazine published Betts long essay \\u201cGetting Out.\\u201d Several months later, the piece was awarded a National Magazine Award. The publication was another example of Betts entering into a new genre and bringing the same depth and richness of self-reflection and exploration of the central problem of this generation: incarceration and its effects of families and communities.\\n\\nBetts transformed himself from a sixteen-year old kid sentenced to nine-years in prison to a critically acclaimed writer and graduate of the Yale Law School. He has written three acclaimed collections of poetry, the recently published Felon, Bastards of the Reagan Era and Shahid Reads His Own Palm.\\n\\nNana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black. Originally from Spring Valley, New York, he graduated from SUNY Albany and went on to receive his MFA from Syracuse University.His work has appeared or is forthcoming from numerous publications, including the New York Times Book Review, Esquire, Literary Hub, the Paris Review, Guernica, and Longreads. He was selected by Colson Whitehead as one of the National Book Foundation's \\u201c5 Under 35\\u201d honorees, is the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle\\u2019s John Leonard Award for Best First Book and the Aspen Words Literary Prize.\\n\\nHe is on the steering committee of the Rockland Coalition to end the New Jim Crow an advocacy group that works toward ending the use of the criminal justice system as a tool of racial oppression.\\n\\nCaits Meissner is the director of Prison and Justice Writing at PEN America. She has taught, consulted, and co-created extensively for over 15 years across a wide spectrum of communities with a focus on prisons, public schools, and college classrooms at The New School and The City College of New York. In 2017, Meissner reenvisioned the concept of book tour for her illustrated poetry collection Let It Die Hungry, pairing public speaking engagements with opportunities to work with incarcerated writers across the United States.\\n\\nWatch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/4PC_M5USHJQ\\n\\nBuy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org\\n\\nFollow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks"