In Conversation: On Hear Us: Writing from the Inside During the Time of COVID

Ana G. Luszczynska chairs the English department at Florida International University's College of Arts, Sciences & Education.

Angel Sanchez is a community activist and senior legal and legislative analyst for the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. At age 16, he was tried as an adult and sentenced to 30 years in prison. While there, he earned his GED and took some undergraduate courses. After being released, he earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Miami. After graduation, he joined other formerly incarcerated leaders in fighting to end Florida’s felony disenfranchisement, culminating in the successful and historic passage in 2018 of Florida’s Amendment 4.

Kathie Klarreich is the author of Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou, and Civil Strife in Haiti and a contributor to two anthologies: So Spoke the Earth: The Haiti I Knew, the Haiti I Know, the Haiti I Want to Know and Women, Writing, and Prison: Activists, Scholars, and Writers Speak Out. She trained journalists in investigative reporting in Haiti, where she spent 12 years reporting for Time, The New York Times, ABC, and NPR. She is also the executive director of Exchange for Change, an organization that offers writing courses in prisons and runs letter exchanges between incarcerated students and writers studying on the outside. Hear Us: Writing from the Inside During the Time of COVID (Disorder Press) is an anthology of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and artwork from incarcerated writers, family members, and corrections staff. In their works, they describe how the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder have impacted their lives. A woman from Alaska fears she has become merely a number and will be lost in a stack of paperwork. A warden in Arizona wonders about what more he can do for his students. An inmate on death row memorializes friends who have died as a result of COVID-19. And a man thanks God for Taylor Swift playing in his headphones, drowning out the sounds of prison.

Kathryn Nowotny is associate professor of medical sociology at the University of Miami and directs the Miami Health and Justice Lab, which aims to improve the health and well-being of people involved in the criminal legal system. She is also co-founder of the COVID Prison Project, the leading national effort to track COVID-19 outcomes and policies across U.S. prisons.