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 Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time. He drafted four of those volumes during his six and a half years in California prisons. He is currently a Building Community Power Fellow at Community Justice Exchange and formerly a research fellow at MediaJustice, where he founded the Challenging E-Carceration project. He is also director of advocacy and outreach for FirstFollowers Reentry Program in Champaign, Illinois.

• Book events
• Reviews
• More from James

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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.

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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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Book Events

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Reviews

• Challenging the Visual Story of Mass Incarceration
• The Warehouse — A Visual Primer of America’s Carceral System
• Prudence Couldn’t Swim: A Publishers Weekly Review
• Prudence Couldn’t Swim: A Review

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Interviews

• Illustrator Vic Liu Wants to Make the Horrors of Mass Incarceration Unmistakable
• ‘You can’t forget that it’s still hell inside,’ say the authors of a new visual book on mass incarceration
• ‘You can’t forget that it’s still hell inside,’ say the authors of a new visual book on mass incarceration
• Picturing the Crisis
• Watch The 13th: A Documentary Trailer
• James Kilgore Interview in the London Times
• Prisoners and Race: PW Talks with James Kilgore

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Mentions

• Author Event: The Warehouse: A Visual Primer on Mass Incarceration

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Blog

• James Kilgore Wikipedia
• www.weareallzimbabweansnow.com
• Talk given at Center for African Studies
• Sensory diaries and fiction-writing in prison (a blog)

• Picturing the Crisis
• The Rise of Electronic Monitoring in Criminal Justice
• James Kilgore’s Talk at the University of Johannesburg
• Repackaging Mass Incarceration
• Fighting Mass Incarceration Under Trump: New Strategies, New Alliances
• Keeping the Spirit of the Prison Labor Strike Alive
• The First Step Act Opens the Door to Digital Incarceration
• Inside the Prison Labor Strike: New Tactics Pay Off in Mainstream Coverage