That's a Pretty Thing to Call It

"“That’s a Pretty Thing shows us that it is possible to seek beauty from hell; that it is possible to cultivate sweetness and honesty in the face of brutality and betrayal. We learn that buried deep in the American carceral system are people. People who love and hurt and think and grow. People who have something to say if only we would listen.”" ~Cynthia W. Roseberry, Acting Director, ACLU Justice Division; project manager of President Obama’s Clemency Initiative; founding board member of Georgia Innocence Project.

"“Sugar and the collected writers contend with the emotional upheavals and moral hazards of teaching in prisons. Here, in knife-edged detail, is prison’s mundane hell: the “ceremonies” of entry and exit, the arbitrary rules, the pointless cruelties. Here, too, are careful portraits of incarcerated students and writers, who challenge their would-be teachers and write with an urgency that most of us will never possess.”" ~Marshall Thomas, attorney, public defender, writer

"“This book has translated the ancient and forgotten language of the dead into the organic syllable of the living. As the Prince in Hamlet identifies “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns,” the prose and poetry warriors in That's a Pretty Thing to Call It go where the dead white poets feared to tread – beyond the silk veil that separates the living from the civilly dead.”" ~Michael Rhynes, author of Guerrillas in the Mist, Pushcart Prize nominee, poet, playwright, and solo performance artist.

"Brilliantly illuminates truths about incarceration ... Prisons are built to separate the incarcerated from the rest of the community, to silence their voices ... Works like That’s a Pretty Thing to Call It expose the cruelty and absurdity of that intention." ~Arts Fuse