Let's (Book) Talk Award Winning Author and Poet Ann Bracken

Ann Bracken, an activist with a pen, has authored three poetry collections, No Barking in the Hallways: Poems from the Classroom and The Altar of Innocence and Once You're Inside: Poems Exploring Incarceration. She serves as a contributing editor for Little Patuxent Review, and co-facilitates the Wilde Readings Poetry Series.  Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in anthologies and journals, including Bared: Contemporary Poetry & Art on Bras & Breasts, Fledgling Rag, and Gargoyle. Ann’s poetry has garnered two Pushcart Prize nominations and   her advocacy work centers around arts-based interventions for mental health, education, and prison reform.  Website: www.annbrackenauthor.com

Her latest collection is: Once You’re Inside: Poems Exploring Incarceration. 

Here's what Dr. Laura Bates, English professor at Indiana State University and author of Shakespeare Saved My Life:

“Ann Bracken’s poetry collection, Once You’re Inside, is jammed with meaningful vignettes about people in prison. Without being the least bit sentimental, she gives the reader insight into the minds and feelings of a wide range of incarcerated people—real people we can almost know from her poems. Each poem stands well alone, but read the entire book for a truthful portrayal of what life in prison is like.”