Sentences includes works by nearly fifty authors who wrote from prison, or who recounted their experiences of imprisonment after regaining their freedom, including

  • Boethius
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • Angela Davis
  • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Rosa Luxembourg
  • Malcolm X
  • Wole Soyinka
  • Oscar Wilde

Spanning poetry, fiction, drama, philosophy, history, and autobiography, the prison writings in this exhibition provide a glimpse into how individuals react to their incarceration and powerfully demonstrate some of the socio-political and economic forces that marginalize, disenfranchise, and criminalize people, their communities, and their beliefs.

Curated by Peter X. Accardo, Houghton Librarian for Scholarly and Public Programs.

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