Prisoner publications creator Sara Falconer and former prison librarian Michelle De Agostini discuss prisoners' struggles to access and write books behind bars.
A conversation with local writer and prisoner publications creator Sara Falconer and former prison librarian and university library manager Michelle De Agostini. Sara discusses her experience working with political prisoners across North America to produce and edit publications authored by prisoners. Michelle discusses her experience running a prison library and the state of prison library policy in Canada.
The 45-minute conversation is followed by a 15-minute question and answer period.
Check out the HPL catalogue to borrow Rattling The Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners, featuring an introduction written by Falconer.
Check out De Agostini's article, Locked Up Libraries: A Critique of Canadian Prison Library Policy in the Journal of Radical Librarianship.
Falconer is a writer, editor and digital strategist who works with nonprofits. She has created publications with prisoners since 2001.
De Agostini is a library worker who worked at the Edmonton Institution, a federal, maximum-security prison for men from 2019-2021. During that time, De Agostini also helped to run programs in prisons, including a creative writing workshop for people housed at the New Edmonton Remand Centre (Canada's largest prison) and a book club program for people housed at the Edmonton Institution.
