Appalachian Prison Book Project
Challenging mass incarceration through books, education, and community engagement.
APBP works to provide educational opportunities and resources to people incarcerated in the six-state Appalachian region. We send books to imprisoned people, host book clubs in prison facilities, fight for educational opportunities behind bars, and publish incarcerated authors and artists.
APBP mails free books to people imprisoned in six states: West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Maryland. We serve over 200 facilities in the region, and we receive around 200 requests per week. Since 2004, we have mailed over 50,000 books.
APBP, in partnership with the West Virginia University Department of English, creates book clubs inside prisons. Book clubs provide incarcerated men and women with an opportunity to read, discuss, and write about literature.
We are convinced that higher education has a critical role to play in moving our country away from mass incarceration. In prison, college classes generate hope, direction, and purpose.
APBP is committed to providing a forum for currently incarcerated people to share their creative work as a means of expression and an avenue for sparking dialogue.