This week, we speak with Joyce Carol Oates about Prison Noir (Akashic), a collection of stories written by incarcerated individuals in the United States prison system. Edited by Oates, this is one in a series of noir anthologies put out by Akashic, whose motto is the "reverse-gentrification of the literary world." Can these stories be read as literature? Our discussion divides between the shocking realism of the stories, the process of procuring them, and what Oates has experienced as a teacher at San Quentin.
Read an excerpt from Prison Noir.
Banner image courtesy of the publisher.