n Roxane Gay's CCCC 2021 keynote address she praised academic writing that people actually want to read, which

for a video conference to discuss the second edition of Illegal Alphabets. Below are excerpts from their exchange, edited for clarity and length. Their conversation focused on the book's origins and the context of the scholarly commentaries that appear in the second edition. Kalmar and Leonard also discuss the book's contributions to literacy studies, teaching the book, and its lasting relevance to notions of migration, borders, discrimination, identity, language, and legality. Leonard's review of the second edition of the book follows her interview with Kalmar and frames its relevance to community literacy researchers, practitioners

Book & New Media Reviews Book & New Media Reviews trial.These examples illustrate how people from the outside often have comparative social power.In acknowledgement of this power differential, Coogan engages in a set of ethical best practices throughout the project. 2 For example, he purposely did not read background information offered to him about the participants' crimes.This distancing allows the writers to reveal this information when they are ready.Secondly, all participants gave final approval for the way their writing appears in the book, and they were given the option of using a pseudonym.In a consent form, Coogan also made it clear that the writers could stop participating at any time.Notably, workshop participation did not obligate them to publish in the book.These measures provide opportunities for agency and indicate a profound respect for participants.Finally, Coogan and the writers made publication decisions together.In opposition to a topdown model in which the program facilitator decides how and when the stories enter the public sphere, publication with an academic press was a collective decision.As more people venture into the uncharted territory of carceral writing, it is clear that we need to think carefully about power and ethical practices.This work offers a crucial step in the right direction.The writing workshop has been succeeded by Open Minds, a program Coogan founded in 2010, that enables incarcerated people to take courses with college students and faculty from Virginia Commonwealth University.In addition, Coogan invites former participants of the project to speak in his prison literature classes.These approaches, along with Writing Our Way Out, are critical for countering monolithic conceptions of people who are incarcerated.The stereotypes circulating in the public sphere are counterproductive to the shift in public opinion needed for meaningful intervention in the broken U.S. criminal justice system.As a counterpublic text, this book provides a valuable blueprint for scholars, educators, and activists to become part of the intervention, and ultimately, the solution.

Pathways of Latinas and Latinos Writing in High School and College might seem a strange fit for a review in Community Literacy Journal.

Cultural Practices of Literacy: Case Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice, and Power reviewed by Kelly A. Concannon Mannise

community literacy

Originally published in: Holmes, Ashley J. “Virtual Volunteerism: Review of LibriVox and VolunteerMatch.” Community Literacy Journal. 6.1 (Fall 2011). DOI: 10.1353/clj.2012.0006 Copyright © 2012 Community Literacy Journal. Posted with the permission of the publisher.

In Because We Live Here: Sponsoring Literacy Beyond the College Curriculum, Eli Goldblatt shares his experiences with community-based learning and encourages readers to "pay attention to the problems of the people among who we live" (6). The unique, self-

Digital artists have created a slew of literacy-themed texts using various combinations of photography, video, music, and writing. Creators of such forms regularly post these clips to online video-sharing sites like YouTube.com, where they provide audiences with diverse messaging about the significance and value of literacy. This review examines four such clips: "Literacy Empowers (Illiteracy Awareness Documentary), " "Bookwise Quotes: The Importance of Literacy, " "Reading Kills (Protesting Literacy at the RNC), " and "21st Century Literacy. " Each one addresses a different dimension of literacy and has been accessed several thousands of times. Whether these texts achieve their disparate purposes remains an open question, but what they argue and how they articulate their messages reveal how literacy is no less contested or open to (mis)appropriation in cyberspace than in more traditional cultural domains. While each begins with an implicit acknowledgement of the unrealized promises of literacies, none offer a coherent response to the enormous and asymmetrical challenges of creating critically literate global citizens.

For those of us of a certain age, the term "adult literacy" conjures images of recently arrived immigrants participating in English-language literacy classes to find or to get ahead in their jobs or to take a citizenship exam. Similarly, we might think of those high school dropouts wanting that GED and taking "refresher" courses to make it happen. But as readers of this journal can attest, the world of adult literacy is far more extensive and far more variegated than anything that used to be associated with the term "adult literacy. " While some communities still offer basic English language courses to those who cannot speak English or for those who wish to gain a greater proficiency in reading or speaking the language, the notion of "literacy" has expanded along with ways that communities and other organizations have developed to encourage literacy. Even in this current economic crisis, a great variety of literacy programs are offered to a great variety of clients with very specific needs. In this synthesis, I seek to review some of the major trends in adult literacy and provide some basic information for the interested reader. I do not mean this essay to be exhaustive but to offer a review of some interesting recent research published in a variety of journals on different approaches to adult literacy. As such, I will explore programs in this country and innovative approaches throughout the world in English and other languages. The aspects of adult literacy that I will survey here include the psychological and social factors that participants in literacy programs bring to the tutoring experience, non-governmental agencies and literacy, concurrent and transnational literacies, technology, and literacy for specific purposes.