‘A Whole Other World than What I Live in’: Reading Chester Himes, on Campus and at the County Jail

This essay first briefly examines African American novelist Chester Himes’ genre-defying position as prison writer turned detective writer, whose influence is clear not only in the usual suspects such Walter Mosley but also Blaxploitation films of early 1970s, and urban fiction tradition from Donald Goines Iceberg Slim on down through today’s Triple Crown books others. I then look at how work has been received by college students incarcerated people who each spring for past 20 years have worked together reading groups set local county jail a project linked to class teach, order raise questions about genre, audience pedagogy. The two readers, may come see other one group over series meetings, often develop readings novel that push back against analysis present classroom.