We are currently developing two new book projects in 2010:
Women in Prison will address the most significant issues currently facing women in the U.S. prison system. These include sexual assault, domestic violence, drug addiction, reproductive oppression and lack of adequate healthcare. We will work with advocates across the country to interview imprisoned and formerly imprisoned women who have had their human rights violated. Read an excerpt from our first interview in the “Justice” section of the San Francisco Panorama.
High Rise Stories: Chicago Public Housing will focus on the voices and experiences of Chicago Housing Agency residents. Tenants will tell the stories of their Chicago neighborhoods, documenting the high-rises, and sharing narratives of their passages out. Tenants’ stories of displacement, relocation and community are not only crucial to Chicago’s social history, but also key to a meaningful national discourse on housing reform, urban renewal and gentrification.
If you’d like to support these projects, click here.
Update on current VOW books:
Last month we released our first-ever foreign-language title, the Spanish edition of Underground America. Titled En las Sombras de Estados Unidos: Narricones des Inmigrantes Indocumentados, the book is now available online at the McSweeney’s store, and in bookstores throughout the U.S.
This summer we sent our Burma project team to Burma-border areas in Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh, where they conducted extensive interviews with almost sixty men and women-from migrant workers and former political prisoners to monks and former child soldiers-who have been most affected by Burma’s oppressive regime. The stories we’ve had coming in are incredible and deeply moving; an excerpt from Lai Pa, a former prisoner and army porter, will be available on The Small Chair in the coming month. Please check back for updates.
Our Zimbabwe book is also being edited after two successful trips, during which we traveled throughout Zimbabwe and South Africa conducting interviews and research. We also held oral history training workshops for local Zimbabweans, who will continue interviews and research on the ground for us. We hope to publish both titles in 2010. In addition, we are hard at work on our Congo book, gathering interviews throughout the country from Rwandan and Congolese refugees, as well as former child soldiers and informal miners. We’ll be posting excerpts from this project in the new year.
