{"product_id":"prison-industrial-complex-explodes-paperback","title":"Prison Industrial Complex Explodes - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMercedes Eng\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining text from government questionnaires and reports, lyric poetry, and photography, \u003cem\u003ePrison Industrial Complex Explodes\u003c\/em\u003e examines the possibility of a privatized prison system in Canada leading up to then Prime Minister Harper's Conservative government passing the Anti-Terrorism Act, also known as Bill C-51. This legislation criminalizes Indigenous peoples' attempts to protect their traditional and unceded territories from ecological destruction by classifying their actions as acts of terrorism, at the same time that it criminalizes refugees, who as victims of colonization and globalization, attempt to flee genocide and poverty yet are targeted as suspected terrorists. Simultaneously, the incarceration of Indigenous people, refugees, and people of colour is rapidly increasing and corporations eagerly court the government for private-public partnerships to fund the building of new prisons and detention centres.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEng's father was an addict who supported his habit by breaking the law. As a result, she spent her formative years acquiring intimate knowledge of the Canadian prison system through visitation rights. The impetus for \u003cem\u003ePrison Industrial Complex Explodes\u003c\/em\u003e was the discovery of a cache of her father's prison correspondence: letters from the federal government stating their intention to deport him because of his criminal record; letters from prison justice advocate Michael Jackson advising her father on deportation; letters from the RCMP regarding the theft of her father's property, a gold necklace, while in transport to prison; letters from family members and friends; letters from Eng and her brother. The cold formality of the government letters in accidental juxtaposition with the emotion of the personal letters struck a creative spark that led to the writing of poems in this collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMercedes Eng\u003c\/strong\u003e is a teacher and writer in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territory. She is the author of Mercenary English (CUE Books), which explores the potential of documentary poetics. Her work has appeared in\u003cem\u003e West Coast Line\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCanada and Beyond\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Capilano Review\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eGeist\u003c\/em\u003e. Much of her creative writing is grounded in struggles for social justice in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In 2014 she wrote a series of articles on poetry and gentrification in Vancouver for \u003cem\u003eJacket2\u003c\/em\u003e, Penn University's online poetry magazine, and in 2012-2013, she wrote several articles for a community newspaper, \u003cem\u003eThe Downtown East\u003c\/em\u003e. She has spoken at the DTES Writer's Jamboree at Carnegie Community Centre (April 2011) and lectured on visual representations of the missing and murdered women of Vancouver at Simon Fraser University (March 2011).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 112\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.3 x 8.9 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 16, 2017\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42700708118591,"sku":"9781772011814","price":21.54,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/d79c79eee2418614b5f8b932943a9d69.webp?v=1765017847","url":"https:\/\/dhlswag.com\/products\/prison-industrial-complex-explodes-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}