James Kilgore




James Kilgore is a researcher and activist based in Urbana, Illinois. He is the author of six books, including the National Book Foundation Award-winning A People’s Guide to Mass Incarceration. He drafted four of those volumes during his six and a half years in California prisons. He is a research fellow at MediaJustice, where he founded the Challenging E-Carceration project and is director of advocacy and outreach for FirstFollowers Reentry Program in Champaign, Illinois.










Prudence Couldn’t Swim

The Warehouse: A Visual Primer on Mass Incarceration

SKU: 9798887440422
Creators: James Kilgore and Vic Liu
Series: PM Press
ISBN: 9798887440422
Published: 05/21/2024
Format: Paperback
Size: 6×9
Pages: 208
Subjects: Penology, Activism & Social Justice, Criminology, Civil Rights

Mass incarceration is a lived, sensory experience.

The most eye-popping statistics alone cannot relate the enormity of its psychological and societal impacts. This concise, illustrated primer is a collaboration between one of mass incarceration’s sharpest opponents, James Kilgore, and information artist Vic Liu. It brings to life the histories and means of daily survival of the marginalized people ensnared in this racist, ableist system of class-based oppression. The book elegantly weaves together the most insightful activist scholarship with vivid testimonials by incarcerated people as they fight back against oppression and imagine freedom.

Those targeted for incarceration do not simply submit to a monochromatic existence behind bars. The Warehouse showcases the abolition futures being crafted from the inside as people resist through direct action and artistic expression. This book is designed to inform, enrage, and ultimately inspire the same radical hope propelling incarcerated underminers of the carceral state.


Prudence Couldn’t Swim

Prudence Couldn’t Swim

SKU: 9781604864953
Author: James Kilgore
Publisher: PM Press / Switchbade Series
ISBN: 9781604864953
Published: 6/2012
Format: Paperback, ePub, PDF, mobi
Size: 5.5 x 8
Page count: 208
Subjects: Fiction

Praise

“James Kilgore’s writing is a refreshing blend of literary talent and political insight; something sorely missing from much of the fiction penned by writers on the Left. His wit, swift pacing, and dead-on characterization are skillfully woven into an unflinching vision for radical change and social justice. So often we are told that a commitment to radical change and a rollicking good read mix like oil and water. Along comes Kilgore to put that lie to rest!” 
—Frank B. Wilderson III, author of Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid

“James Kilgore is a masterful writer, and as a U.S. activist who has lived in Africa most of his adult life, Kilgore is able to connect us to politics and culture as no other writer. This character-driven mystery promises to find a devoted following.”  —Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War.



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