Books for Fall 2007 the University of Arizona Press
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Arizona Books for Fall 2007 The University of Arizona Press 355 South Euclid Avenue, Suite 103 Tucson, Arizona 85719 1-800-426-3797 www.uapress.arizona.edu From Crossing the Yard CONTENTS New Books When I crossed the main yard that night, it Anthropology 19, 21, 25 was deserted. Chow was long since over, and Archaeology 26–32 the men were either in their cells or in class- Art 9 rooms in the education yard. I got to the iron Biology & Ecology 22 door and yelled “Guard!” as I always did. The Children’s 10 little basket came down as it always did, and I Gardening 8 reached into it to get the key. But there was no History 11–12, 16–17, 24 key. Instead there were many little transpar- Latin American Studies 12, 24–26, 28 ent plastic bags filled with white powder. I Latina/o Studies 12–15 froze, but my mind was racing. From above, Literature 1–7 all they could see was my cowboy hat. They Memoir 1–2 couldn’t see my face. Somebody had made a Native American Studies 18–21, 27, 31 terrible mistake. I had been told by men in Nature & Environment 3–5, 23 the workshop that the mainstream drug trade Poetry 6–7 was carried on by guards to supplement their Sociology 13–15, 25 extremely low salaries, but I hadn’t believed it. Now I had seen too much, far too much for an Ironwood Press Publications 8, 47 outsider. Grand Canyon Association 9–11 As I stared as if hypnotized at the little SWCA Environmental Consultants 32 packets of white powder for what seemed Arizona State Museum 32 like a very long time, possibilities were racing Oregon State University Press 33 through my head. Would they shoot me now and make up a story to account for it later? Left Coast Press 33 Should I try to run back across the main Recently Published Books 34–38 yard? I’d never make it if they wanted to shoot Books for Hispanic Heritage Month 39 me and say they thought it was an escaping Books About Native Americans 40 inmate. I couldn’t get through the iron door Best-Selling Backlist Books 41–47 because I didn’t have the key. Ultimately there Sales Information 48 seemed to be nothing to do but stand there. I New Title Index inside back cover could actually feel a bullet entering my body Front cover: The Needle’s Eye by Bruce Aiken just between my shoulder blades. © Bruce Aiken. See page 9 for Bruce Aiken’s Grand Canyon Visit us on the World Wide Web www.uapress.arizona.edu MEMOIR Finding humanity among society’s exiles Crossing the Yard Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer RICHARD Shelton Ever since he was asked to critique the poetry of a convicted murderer, he has lived in two worlds. Richard Shelton was a young English professor in 1970 when a convict named Charles Schmid—a serial killer dubbed the “Pied Piper of Tucson” in national magazines—shared his brooding verse. But for Shelton, the novelty of meeting a death-row monster became a thirty-year commitment to helping prisoners express themselves. Shelton began organizing creative writing workshops behind bars, and in this gritty memoir he offers up a chronicle of reaching out to forgotten men and “This book is a tribute to Richard women—and of creativity blossoming in a repressive environment. He tells of Shelton’s artistry, to the power of published students such as Paul Ashley, Greg Forker, Ken Lamberton, and Jimmy words, and to the talent of men behind Santiago Baca who have made names for themselves through their writing bars. ‘You have saved me before they instead of their crimes. might have destroyed me,’ writes one Shelton also recounts the bittersweet triumph of seeing work published by of his former workshop participants, men who later met with agonizing deaths, and the despair of seeing the creative ‘I am singing.’ In this deeply felt and strides of inmates broken by politically motivated transfers to private prisons. honest memoir, Shelton teaches us the And his memoir bristles with hard-edged experiences, ranging from inside meaning of compassion and makes a moving plea for the arts in prison.” knowledge of prison breaks to a workshop conducted while a riot raged outside a —Jean Trounstine, author of barricaded door. Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power Reflecting on his decision to tutor Schmid, Shelton sees that the choice “has of Drama in a Women’s Prison led me through bloody tragedies and terrible disappointments to a better understanding of what it means to be human.” Crossing the Yard is a rare story of “Richard Shelton does good time in professional fulfillment—and a testament to the transformative power of writing. Arizona’s unnatural wonder, its prison system. Read this book and learn how RICHARD Shelton continues to lead prison workshops and is editor of the journal we have all failed ourselves and our Walking Rain Review, which features the work of current and former inmates. A Regents’ fellow citizens.” —Charles Bowden Professor in the University of Arizona’s creative writing program, he is the author of eleven books of poetry and the award-winning memoir Going Back to Bisbee. “Since the early ‘70s I have known and admired Richard Shelton’s devoted and October 256 pp., 6 x 9 unwavering work and could follow ISBN 978-0-8165-2594-2 $35.00 cloth some of the results of his steady, ISBN 978-0-8165-2595-9 $17.95 paper courageous, responsible generosity of talent and spirit. He has kept that work, and the hope that goes with it, alive for Also by Richard Shelton— nearly four decades, and his account of that is a landmark of what we like to Going Back to Bisbee call humanity.” —W. S. Merwin “From Tucson to Bisbee is only a hundred- mile trip. but Richard Shelton makes it a memorable ride through time.” —New York Times Book Review ISBN 978-0-8165-1289-8 $17.95 paper The University of Arizona Press • 1-800-426-3797 1 MEMOIR One man’s chronicle of crime, punishment, and redemption Time of Grace Thoughts on Nature, Family, and the Politics of Crime and Punishment KEN LAMBERTON “I hole up in my own cozy cubicle and write, considering ways to make the approaching Thanksgiving holiday not just another day in this place. In prison, hope faces east; time is measured in wake-ups.” Time of Grace is a remarkable book, written with great eloquence by a former “Everyone concerned with America’s science teacher who was incarcerated for twelve years for his sexual liaison burgeoning prison population—which with a teenage student. Far more than a “prison memoir,” it is an intimate and is to say, all of us—should read Time of revealing look at relationships—with fellow humans and with the surprising Grace for its dispassionate, disturbing wildlife of the Sonoran Desert, both inside and beyond prison walls. Throughout, portrait of contemporary prison life. Ken Lamberton reflects on human relations as they mimic and defy those of the At the same time, that Lamberton is able to find so much beauty behind natural world, whose rhythms calibrate Lamberton’s days and years behind bars. barbed wire teaches us all how to He writes with candor about his life, while observing desert flora and fauna with live, if only we have the courage and the insight and enthusiasm of a professional naturalist. discipline to look. Time of Grace should While he studies a tarantula digging her way out of the packed earth and be read as an insider’s sober and observes Mexican freetail bats sailing into the evening sky, Lamberton ruminates unsettling critique of corruption and on his crime and on the wrenching effects it has had on his wife and three mismanagement in America’s prisons, daughters. He writes of his connections with his fellow inmates—some of whom but in a security-obsessed age it is he teaches in prison classes—and with the guards who control them, sometimes equally important as a primer on how to find and cultivate faith.” with inexplicable cruelty. And he unflinchingly describes a prison system that —Fenton Johnson, author of Keeping has gone horribly wrong—a system entrapped in a self-created web of secrecy, Faith fear, and lies. This is the final book of Lamberton’s trilogy about the twelve years he spent “Biologist Ken Lamberton sees so in prison. Readers of his earlier books will savor this last volume. Those who are keenly and writes so gracefully, it’s only now discovering Lamberton’s distinctive voice—part poet, part scientist, nearly impossible to stop reading him. part teacher, and always deeply, achingly human—will feel as if they are making That we locked him up for a crime that a new friend. pits our very biological urges against our avowal to be ethical mammals Gripping, sobering, and beautifully written, Lamberton’s memoir is an makes this book even more irresistible. unforgettable exploration of crime, punishment, and the power of the human Its revelations, accusations, and spirit. deep humility jar us into rethinking multiple human messes we make, and KEN LAMBERTON is a freelance writer who has written more than 100 science and to honor—or envy—his redemption.” nature articles for leading magazines. His work has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. The —Alan Weisman, author of The World first two books in his prison trilogy are Wilderness and Razor Wire, winner of the John Without Us Burroughs Medal, and Beyond Desert Walls, published by the University of Arizona Press.