A Grip of Time

February 18, 2019
Kessler, a journalist and University of Oregon professor, chronicles her experience leading a writing group at Oregon State Penitentiary in this poignant work of narrative nonfiction. The book provides insight into life inside a maximum-security prison while illuminating the benefits of the craft of writing. Kessler’s writing, as well as the writing of the men in her group, provides readers with rich descriptions of the lush entrance to the prison, the rigid system of rules that could be disrupted by random acts at any moment, and the inmates’ sterile cells. She also describes in detail the hurdles she faced in starting the writing group and keeping it running, negotiating the bureaucracy around training, bringing books for the men, ensuring they can attend meetings, and so on. She also describes her pedagogical methods, including those she uses to help her writing group open up without feeling too vulnerable, starting each session with open-ended, single-word prompts like “dreams.” Readers get to know the group members through their work and Kessler’s discussions about them; one participant writes movingly about the idea of owning one’s time, another about how hope is the thing that keeps a person at the end of their metaphorical rope from dropping it. This compassionate account reveals a bit of what life is like inside prison, and a bit about how writing can forge connections among vastly different people.

April 1, 2019
An intrepid journalist immerses herself in a maximum security prison. Displaying her impeccable observational skills, Kessler (Raising the Barre: Big Dreams, False Starts, and My Midlife Quest to Dance The Nutcracker, 2015, etc.) takes on the complex, fraught subject of incarceration in America. For most Americans, she writes, the portrayals of prisons in dramas like The Shawshank Redemption and Orange Is the New Black are the only sources of information about that world. "We figured we knew what was what. But of course we didn't," she explains, stating that her mission was to "learn about this hidden world. So that we all could. I could teach these men to craft stories. They could educate me about prison life. I needed to know--I thought we all needed to know--who these people were that we put away, far away from us, in a country that puts more people in prison than any other country on earth." After arduously pursuing permission to launch a writers group at Oregon State Penitentiary, she finally succeeded and spent the next three years visiting inmates willing to participate in the Lifers' Writing Group. Her group included a dozen convicted murderers of varying ages serving life sentences, some with, others without, parole. Some participated regularly, others came and went, but the core became committed to expressing themselves through the written word. Discussing everything from "joy" to "privacy" to topics like recidivism, Kessler moved deeper into these men's collective life experiences as they revealed themselves both verbally and on the page. Their inner thoughts and feelings are as eye-opening as they are enlightening. "I am, time and again, struck by their intelligence, their insight, their candor, their humor," writes the author. Between poignant moments tossed up with the drudgeries, frustrations, and clever dodges of prison life, Kessler gives a pulsing heart and a human face to this portion of the population all too often forgotten outside the walls. An incisive, welcome look at prison life in the U.S.

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