AU School of Public Affairs professor Robert Johnson is a busy man.
By day, he teaches courses in the Department of Justice, Law and Criminology (JLC), mostly on the topics of the prison system and social justice.
When he’s not teaching courses, Johnson oversees and helps to develop a student-run publishing press about these same topics.
In 2006, Johnson was incorporating creative writing into one of his courses (“Prison Stories”) when he decided to expand this kind of work outside of the classroom. He found that the best way to get students to connect with prisoners was through reading their poetry. Roberts soon began writing poetry from the perspective of prisoners himself and encouraging his students to do so as well. By combining his experience in creative writing with his passion for justice in the prison system, BleakHouse Publishing was created.
The name of the press, Johnson said, reflects the bleak reality of human suffering and the human condition. For that reason, subject matter published by BleakHouse is not necessarily limited to literal prisons, but other situations that are conducive to the feeling of being trapped.
“The point of the press is to give people who normally don’t have a voice about the margins of society an effective voice,” Johnson said.
Though Johnson is the founding editor and publisher, BleakHouse is an otherwise student-run organization.
“In many ways, it’s kind of a uniquely driven student operation, powered by the enthusiasm of students and the talent of students,” Johnson said.
Nora Kirk, a senior in the School of Public Affairs, is the chief development officer of the press. She is responsible for reaching out to the community outside of AU and bringing awareness to BleakHouse.
“It’s millions of people that are a part of our population, and they’re just this hidden component that we don’t ever think about in our day-to-day lives. So I like to think of BleakHouse as a channel, or a way to express this almost forgotten population,” Kirk said. “I think these issues are so much better expressed, it’s so much easier to connect to them on a human basis, when they’re expressed through art and creative writing and literature.”
BleakHouse publishes annual issues of Tacenda Literary Magazine, an online graphic design magazine called The BleakHouse Review and an annual poetry anthology. All works feature the combined voices of AU students and incarcerated or formerly incarcerated writers. BleakHouse also has an online art gallery where the works of prisoners are digitally on display.
Johnson, Kirk and the rest of BleakHouse intend to expand through collaboration with Free Minds, a book club aimed at young inmates, and through hosting a larger number of readings in the prison community.
“There’s a certain amount of spontaneity about how [BleakHouse] will evolve, but its generally getting better and better over time,” Johnson said.
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Purchase copies of BleakHouse publications online or through contacting Professor Robert Johnson. _
