From Prison Library to Prison Library

My memoir, “Blank Canvas, How I Reinvented My Life After Prison,” has gone full circle.

This week I received the email below from an inmate in Federal Prison:

“I hope that this email finds you well. I’m currently serving a 41-month sentence at the camp located at U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth in Leavenworth, KS.

I wanted to reach out as I recently read your book ‘Blank Canvas’ and truly found it to be inspirational and motivating. I am hoping to open up a dialogue with you about your journey and learn more about your life since publishing your book.

I’m working on putting together a course for inmates here at the camp and would like to make your book part of the course syllabus (with your permission).”

Wow.

I started writing “Blank Canvas” inside the Otisville Federal Prison library using those black and white composition notebooks we used in high school and a Bic pen.

I had no idea what I was doing; I only knew that I had to do it.

My goal, my desire, my hope, the fuel that propelled me through six years of work and around 1 million words written was to,

“help one person.”

Now “Blank Canvas” resides inside Leavenworth prison (and many other prisons…