Visit this page to see when APBP is featured in the news.
2022: WVU Today
West Virginia University (WVU) and APBP were recognized as part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Awards.
2022: 1455
In an essay about volunteering with APBP, Destinee Harper writes about reading letters from people in prison requesting books while grappling with the realities of her brother’s prison sentence.
2022: The Real News Network
APBP was mentioned as one group doing the work of sending books into prisons in an interview with Alex Skopic about the trend of banning books in prisons.
2021: Protean
Alex Skopic tackled the topic of how the US prison system is waging a war on reading and stressed that nonprofit groups like APBP are not part of the problem but instead part of the solution.
2021: Oklahoma Watch
In an article about tablets and video calls in Oklahoma prisons, digital communications coordinator Lydia Welker spoke about the costs of free tablets in West Virginia prisons.
2020: WBOY 12 News
Charlie Walker, a high school student at University High School in Morgantown, WV, collected 500+ books for APBP over the course of several months because, as he says, “education should be a basic human right.”
2020: WBOY 12 News
APBP board member Judy Panagakos was quoted by WBOY 12 News. In the article, she spoke about how WVU MLK Day of Service participants volunteered with APBP.
2020: The Daily Athenaeum
APBP’s partnership with WVU to provide Inside-Out courses to incarcerated students was featured in The DA. Katy Ryan spoke about this opportunity, calling it “a matter of equity.”
2020: WV News
Read about how APBP is paying the tuition for 15 incarcerated students to take a West Virginia University sociology course in WV News.
2019/2020: GTL/WVDCR Tablet Coverage
On November 20, 2019, APBP published a piece on a contract between the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) and Global Tel Link (GTL) to charge incarcerated people by the minute to read free books on electronic tablets.
The story quickly gained traction and was picked up by several news sites:
- Cory Doctorow, “In an age of disappearing prison libraries, jail profiteers provide “free” crapgadget tablets that charge prisoners by the minute to read Project Gutenberg ebooks,” BoingBoing
- CJ Ciarmella, “West Virginia Inmates Will Be Charged by the Minute to Read E-Books on Tablets,” Reason
- PEN America, “Pay-Per-Minute E-Readers In West Virginia Prisons Jeopardize Access to Literature”
- Anne Branigin, “West Virginia Is Charging Its Inmates $0.03 Cents a Minute to Read Free E-Books. Here’s Why That Matters,” The Root
- Marika Malaea, “West Virginia Charges Prisoners 3 Cents a Minute to Read E-Books From Free Library, Despite Earning Less Than $1 an Hour,” Newsweek
- Whitney Kimball, “Bloodsucking Prison Telecom Is Scamming Inmates With ‘Free’ Tablets,” Gizmodo
- Karl Bode, “How the FCC Helped Pave the Way for Predatory Prison Telecoms,” VICE
- Diane Bernard, “People in WV Prisons Charged Steep Fees for Free Books,” Public News Service
- Ron Charles, “Book Club,” The Washington Post
- Eldon Ray James, “Prisoners Pay to Read: Corrections departments turn to private companies for profit,” American Libraries Magazine
2019: Restorative Radio
APBP’s media relations coordinator Gabriella Pishotti spoke about APBP on Episode 7 of the Restorative Radio project. Her interview begins at 23:15.
2019: The Words
Dalton Green, student at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN, wrote about his experience volunteering for APBP in The Words, Macalaester’s English student newsletter: “Challenging Mass Incarceration with the Power of a Good Book.”
2019: WBOY 12 News
APBP’s media relations coordinator Gabriella Pishotti was interviewed by WBOY 12 News. In the interview, she spoke about how APBP works as well as how the community can support our project.
2018: BuzzFeed News
APBP was recently featured in BuzzFeed News! Read the article, This Appalachian Nonprofit Puts Books in the Hands of Inmates Who Need Them, to learn about how we got started, what we do, and how we do it.
2017: Eberly Magazine Studies Education Behind Bars
Eberly Magazine‘s “A Voice for Those on the Other Side of the Wall” features APBP and the Inside-Out program.
2015: Focus
The March/April issue of Focus included an article about Katy Ryan, APBP’s founder, called “Reading Between the Bars: A WVU professor takes on social injustice by sending books to prisoners.”
2015: WV Living Magazine
WV Living Magazine wrote a short feature about Katy Ryan and APBP: “This Matters to Katy Ryan.”
2014: Feature on Past Board Member Mike Buso
Read about Mike Buso’s wonderful contributions to APBP and his graduate research in Eberly Magazine‘s “Redefining the English Ph.D., One Passion Project at a Time.”
2014: The Daily Athenaeum
Katy Ryan, founder of APBP, was recognized in The Daily Athenaeum, West Virginia University’s student newspaper. Read more in the article, “WVU associate professor awarded for leadership with Prison Book Project.”
2012: The Daily Athenaeum
APBP was featured in The Daily Athenaeum twice in 2012. In August, the student newspaper published a profile of our organization: “University project gives books to inmates.” They also reviewed APBP’s successful 123 Pleasant Street benefit concert.
2011: The Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation gave APBP a shout-out on their website. Read the piece: “Help the Appalachian Prison Book Project.”
2011: The Daily Athenaeum
APBP was the subject of a piece in West Virginia University’s student newspaper. Read The Daily Athenaeum article, called “Book project to accept donations for prisoners.”
2011: The Dominion Post
APBP was featured in The Dominion Post. View a PDF of the article: “WVU prison project connects inmates with reading material.”
2011: WVU Journalism Blog Features APBP
Toni Cekada, a student in the West Virginia University Department of Journalism, wrote the an article called “Books through Bars” about the work we do at APBP.