Welcome to Season 11. If you’re new to Writing Class Radio, season 11 was going to be a little different. We started a 10-part series inspired by the people Allison met teaching memoir writing in prison. But last week, Allison was fired by the organization she volunteered for and we were asked to take down the episodes. On this episode, we tell you why.

Listen to see how we plan to move forward from here. Just a hint...there is no way we are giving up on our mission to get marginalized and typically unheard voices into the world. 

We’re re-working our prison series. We won’t be airing the stories written by Allison’s students in class, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reach out to other incarcerated people and give them the opportunity to tell their stories. 

If you are incarcerated, have been incarcerated, or have a loved one who is/was incarcerated, we want to hear your story. If you work with incarcerated people, please pass this along. View Submission guidelines here.

This episode of Writing Class Radio is hosted and produced by Allison Langer and Andrea Askowitz. The episode is also produced by Matt Cundill of SoundOff Media. Zorina Frey and Ariel Henley are our media specialists.

Theme music is by Marnino Toussaint. 

There’s more writing class on our website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

If you love the lessons you get on each episode, you can get them ALL in one place--our three-part video series--for $50. Click Video Classes on our website.

If you want to be a part of the movement that helps people better understand each other through storytelling, follow us on Patreon. For $10/month Andrea will answer all your publishing questions. For $25/month you can join Allison’s First Draft weekly writers group, where you can write and share your work Tuesdays 12-1 (ET). www.Patreon.com/writingclassradio.

Mentioned in this episode is Chris Wilson, author of The Master Plan. Chris is a businessman and social justice activist. Chris was raised in Washington, D.C., where he grew up under extremely difficult circumstances. At the age of 17, he was sentenced to juvenile life without the possibility of parole and served 16 years behind bars. While imprisoned, he earned his high school diploma, graduated from multiple vocational shops, earned an Associate of Arts Degree in Sociology and taught himself to speak and write in several languages. 

For more Chris Wilson check out his The Stoop story and visit his website.

Also mentioned was a story written by Clifton Jones (2-Tall) who told his story of losing his mother while incarcerated and how that loss inspired him to leave a legacy.