[Bookstoprisoners] Spineless Books

[William at Spineless Books]

Dear UCBTP,

For those who didn't know, Spineless Books is an independent publishing 
house in Urbana that is dedicated to the production and distribution, 
in print and electronic forms, of innovative literature with an 
emphasis on formal experimentation, collaborative writing, and utopian 
thought. We're like a little Independent Media Center, with a focus on 
literature. We publish unusual books of poetry and fiction and maintain 
an educational, literary website.

In 2004 I leant our identity to an activist named Adam, because (my 
understanding is) books mailed to prisoners must come from a 
publisher's address. The idea was that the name "Spineless Books" would 
be a return address used by UCBTP to get around this bizarre and unfair 
rule. I also gave Adam our old P.O. Box (since I had moved from Urbana 
to Providence) and leftover letterhead.

Since 2004, Spineless Books has moved back from Providence and St. 
Louis to Urbana, and UCBTP has grown to be many times the size (in 
volunteer base and budget) of the organization whose name it borrows.

This may be causing some confusion. Mail sent to Spineless Books in 
Urbana without a PO box specified will go to the official Spineless 
Books box 17191. I am about to forward some mail to box 515 that ended 
up in box 17191. Of course, if you end up getting any mail meant for us 
(like checks sent to order books), I'd appreciate it if it could be 
forwarded. It's possible, since your address was once ours, and because 
you use our name.

I would also appreciate it if you would, on the links page of your 
website, where you kindly mention Spineless Books, give our address 
(Box 17191, Urbana, 61803) instead of yours. Our phone is also now 217 
722-1003 if you would like to update that as well. The number you have 
listed for us is long deceased.

It might make sense, now that you are publishing artwork by prisoners, 
to create and name your own publishing entity, and use that for your 
return address. I am happy to offer advice on how to start a publishing 
company.

As a result of our collaboration with UCBTP, we started a project to 
publish poetry and artwork by prisoners. Invisible Literature:
http://spinelessbooks.com/invisibleliterature/

This project was promoted in Texas, where there are a LOT of poets in 
prison, and since then we have been flooded by submissions. We are in 
need of volunteers to help type in poems and write back to the poets. 
If anybody at UCBTP who curates artwork by prisoners is interested in 
helping out, discussing a collaboration, or taking over management of 
this project, I would welcome that. Our idea was to offer the prisoners 
dignity as artists by foregrounding their work over their 
circumstances. I strove for a formal and elegant design. More chapbook 
than zine.

Here's the Invisible Literature mission:

Spineless Books publishes poetry and artwork by prisoners to encourage 
literacy and art, to give a voice to the incarceration population, and 
to help raise awareness of this growing fraction of our human 
community.

We see this as a three stage process.

1. Creating a permanent web archive of writing by prisoners. Web 
publication will allow us to compile a potentially unlimited archive of 
writing with minimum delay and effort, freely available to anyone, 
allowing for different indexing strategies to make the material easily 
navigable.

2. Zines, journals, chapbooks. The web archive can make explicit the 
conditions under which the writing may be reprinted. The material will 
thus be available for publication in any number of contexts.

3. Publishing a book.

Publishing a book will take a long time, and will involve the painful 
necessity of choosing some poets and not others. Nevertheless, we hope 
our efforts will culminate in a book of writing by prisoners available 
to readers, libraries, and bookstores.

William

http://spinelessbooks.com

Spineless Books PO Box 17191 Urbana IL 61803