Description:
For several years, Wally Lamb, the author of two of the most beloved novels of our time, has run a writing workshop at the York Correctional Institution, Connecticut's only maximum-security prison for women. Writing, Lamb discovered, was a way for these women to face their fears and failures and begin to imagine better lives. Couldn't Keep It to Myself, a collection of their essays, was published in 2003 to great critical acclaim. With I'll Fly Away, Lamb offers readers a new volume of intimate pieces from the York workshop. Startling, heartbreaking, and inspiring, these stories are as varied as the individuals who wrote them, but each illuminates an important core truth: that a life can be altered through self-awareness and the power of the written word.
Brief description:
Wally Lamb is the author of five New York Times bestselling novels: She's Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True, The Hour I First Believed, Wishin' and Hopin', and We Are Water. His first two works of fiction, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were both #1 New York Times bestsellers and selections of Oprah's Book Club. Lamb edited Couldn't Keep It to Myself, I'll Fly Away, and You Don't Know Me, three volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women's prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for two decades. He lives in Connecticut.
Review Quotes:
"The book challenges stereotypes and offers a world of information about how women end up in prison . . . . It's a certainty that I'll Fly Away will be . . . required reading in middle schools and high schools and for sociology and psychology majors all over the country." - San Antonio Express-News
"In 20 essays, contributors recall childhood suffering, abusive relationship, and the circumstances that led them to be imprisoned . . . Lamb . . . continues to offer readers an intimate look at women struggling to maintain their humanity." - Booklist
"Inspiring and raw . . . The 20 women whose work is featured here . . . show that writing is not just a way of capturing their most private thoughts and gripping emotions . . . but also a powerful tool to foster hope and healing. They write from the heart...each vignette is more compelling than the one before it." - Library Journal
"Accomplished . . . These works radiate what Lamb saw as the program's critical mission: to give the women wings . . . . None are self-pitying, but none shy away from speaking directly to the gross cruelties so often inflicted on their early years or young marriages. Each story, no matter how grim or gritty, shows polish." - Kirkus Reviews