Of Two Halves: Poetry and Prose from Lancashire Prisons

Offenders from across Lancashire had the opportunity to have their poetry and short stories about their childhood published in a book produced by Litfest and students at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.

Men from across the county – at Her Majesty’s Prisons Garth, Kirkham, Lancaster Castle, Preston, Wymott, and Lancaster Farms Young Offender Institution – submitted work that used the idea of childhood as a starting point.

Students from the Centre for the Employability through the Humanities (ceth) worked with Litfest Projects Manager Catherine Sadler to develop an idea for a theme for the anthology and to select and edit texts for the publication, learning about what makes a particular piece of writing interesting, working with authors, and how to look at editing and preparing text for layout and design. Martin Chester at Litfest also worked on the project, designing the posters to promote the project and the cover of the book.

The work submitted by inmates tell of life and love in both an urban and a rural Britain, of a childhood living through civil war in Nigeria, and of individual aspiration, resolve and regret, with an honesty and openness that is to be admired.

The publication was launched at the ceth literature festival in 2007.

Temporarily Unavailable to buy.

A CETH project in partnership with Litfest