Scholarly Work
Articles, Books and Chapters
Using Digital Book Clubs during the COVID-19 Pandemic to Minimize the Distance of Social Distancing
April 3, 2023
Due to COVID-19, making transitions from in-person to remote learning has been challenging, especially for educators who work with historically marginalized populations. For the duration of the pandemic, the authors have used books that center social justice in order to facilitate asynchronous and synchronous digital book clubs to build and sustain communities. In doing so, they have supported readers’ literacies while also focusing on building readers’ sense of agency, advocacy, and emotional well-being. The authors used their combined experiences in ways that were culturally sustaining and emotionally responsive to the needs of vulnerable populations consisting of both formerly incarcerated adults and young adults in alternative school districts. Using transactional theories and culturally sustaining pedagogies, this article provides an overview of how the authors facilitated these experiences as healing and nurturing spaces that sustain readers’ literacies while also providing them with coping strategies and opportunities for connections during a global pandemic.
"Apple Is for Identity and Other Prompts. The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison." The Sentences That Create Us. Haymarket Books
January 11, 2022
The Sentences That Create Us provides a road map for incarcerated people and their allies to have a thriving writing life behind bars—and shared beyond the walls—that draws on the unique insights of more than fifty contributors, most of themselves justice-involved, to offer advice, inspiration, and resources.
"For Tammy with Love." Unwritten: Stories from Behind and Beyond the Bars.
November 15, 2021
UNWRITTEN: Stories From Behind and Beyond The Bars, is an anthology of powerful, vulnerable stories, affirmations, poems, and testimonies from incarcerated individuals, their families, and community members to spread healing and understanding.
"Bridging Islands to Build a Continent: Harnessing the Power of Digital Book Clubs During the Coronavirus Pandemic." The Corona Chronicles, DIO Press.
February 8, 2021
Due to the recent pandemic, making transitions from in-person to remote learning has been challenging. For those of us who work with historically marginalized adults who live in low socioeconomic areas, we have challenges we cannot control, such as lack of food, technology, and healthcare. As educators, we must keep these challenges at the forefront of our minds, meeting students where they are while prioritizing their social-emotional needs without losing momentum in their academic progress. As adult educators, we have used digital book clubs over the past four months in synchronous and asynchronous ways to build and sustain communities. In doing so, we supported the literacy development of readers while also focusing on social justice issues and students’ emotional well-being. Together, Jody and Anderson use their combined experiences to speak through how they have fostered digital book clubs in ways that are culturally sustaining and emotionally responsive to the needs of our most vulnerable populations. Specifically, Anderson will share his work with formerly incarcerated adults while Jody will share her experiences with young adults in alternative school districts. Throughout this article, we will provide an overview of how we facilitated book clubs as healing spaces for sustaining readers’ literacies while also providing them with coping strategies and connections. Through books that center social justice, we address readers’ hearts and minds equally, while also helping them to imagine and enact their own sense of agency, developing ways in which they can promote change within their lives and communities.
A Second Chance at a First Impression
July 27, 2005
A thought trapped in a room.. Like a child, I can hear the screams, But it's impossible to disturb my reality.. So all my ambitions are revealed in dreams. Visions of pictures, Are thoughts of pride, Thoughts of Love, forever trapped; Bottled up inside. And now you've returned, a gift from the Heavens, I'd say, People think that I'm crazy, but once the world sees you, I'd be sane that day. Author, Anderson Smith takes everyday life experiences and emotions and converts it into words and plots that we can all relate to.