Crossing the Yard

Author: Richard Shelton
Bugs: 3.5
Review by: wsh

After seeing the author, a professor of literature and poetry at the University of Arizona, discuss his experiences in a segment of PBS's "The Lehrer Report," one evening, I immediately requested this book. What a disappointment! Yes, he thoroughly details the genesis of the creative writing program he developed at the Arizona State Prison System during his thirty years as a prison volunteer (that exact phrase appears in virtually every chapter; since it was in the title, we get it already), and proudly announces how the works of many of his mentees were praised, published and prized - but he somehow omits citing any of those works save for three tiny fragments of poetry (and one of those was his own). Granted, his descriptions of the AZ prison system from the 1970's to the present are moving and make a logical argument for change in the treatment of the incarcerated. And his own growth in seeing the humanity inherent in the individuals he taught/mentored was inspiring. However well-written this book may have been, I felt cheated that the talented voices alluded to by the author were silent.