Evie (left) is our youngest volunteer! This mother-daughter dynamic duo makes a weekly appearance at BTP to expertly fullfill requests! What got you interested in BTP to begin with, or what made you start volunteering? Does it tie in to the rest of your life in any meaningful way? Kate: I  was looking for a volunteer opportunity for my daughter, Evie, and I to do together.  I wanted to instill the importance of volunteering and giving back to your community.  After a lot of r

Books to Prisoners volunteers will be attending the Ear Hustle live show on February 6th at 7:30 pm at Town Hall as a community event.  We would love to have you join us! Ear Hustle  is an award winning podcast produced inside of San Quentin, a notorious California prison, that explores the experience of life in American prisons.  They are supplying a discount code for our BTP volunteers. Fill out this form  to receive a code before purchasing your ticket here . They will als

Happy New Year! As we enter 2026 please consider donating books! Donations are the lifeline of Books to Prisoners and enable us to continue our work. We are specifically looking for the following genres and titles. We accept new and used books and have a strong preference for paperbacks, although we will accept hardbacks as well.  Fiction: Fantasy  Horror Non Fiction: Beyond Bars Used Copies Penguin Random House Prisoner’s Self-Help Litigation Manual  Amazon A few used copies

Books we're out of: Coloring books for adults (no nudity) Paperback books about automotive repair and maintenance Paperback self help Figure Drawing for Kids, or other paperback drawing guides without nudity Paperback fantasy Paperback dictionaries Paperback Jewish nonfiction and fiction  You may notice a trend here. The number of prisons and jails that don't allow people to have hardcover books grows by the month. Paperbacks can go so many places that hardcovers can't. Book

What got you interested in BTP to begin with, or what made you start volunteering? Does it tie in to the rest of your life in any meaningful way? Over the summer, I decided I wanted to volunteer at local libraries and began combing the internet for opportunities. This led to the discovery of the Books to Prisoners website. The mission statement deeply resonated with me and I immediately reached out to contribute. I would not be the person I am today without books. They are in

Orca totem, Pacific NW coast. We need donations of paperback Native American nonfiction and fiction by Native American authors year-round. We're especially low right now. We're looking for fiction, biographies and memoirs by and about Native Americans, history from an indigenous perspective, and pre-Columbian religions/mythology. Here are some contemporary authors and titles we'd like to have in order to fill requests from incarcerated readers: Literary fiction by Leslie Mar

There is no weight maximum for packages, but a good guideline is that the average package will be a 2-pounder; some packages will be 1-pounders, some will be 3+ pounders. Two books being weighed on a scale. The red pointer aligns with a black line drawn at 1 pound 14 ounces. All of the lines drawn on the dial are two ounces short of the shipping weight, to allow for the weight of the wrapping material. This post is the first in a series of Tips for Volunteers, about the fine

Books last longer than candy, and they're better for your teeth! We always need books on these spooky topics: Horror fiction, classic and modern Paranormal fiction of all kinds and not-so-spooky, but still associated with Halloween and scary movies: Witchcraft Wicca Neopaganism Spiritual practices inspired by indigenous traditions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas As well as books about: UFO's and aliens Cryptozoology Haunted houses Bizarre coincidences The Occult If you hav

"Used Books Not Allowed" scrawled on the wrapping paper of a package of books refused by a prison mailroom. Today is the first day of Prison Banned Books Week 2025, a week examining the catastrophic impact of censorship on information access inside jails, prisons, and detention centers. Head to prisonbannedbooksweek.org  for updates and actions this week, and SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKS TO PEOPLE IN PRISONS CHAPTER by donating books, gifting postage money, volunteering, and spre

Panel: Banned Books: What’s the Story? Oct 19, Sunday, 2-4, pm Seattle Central Library, (Room: Level 4, Rm 1) 1000 4th Avenue, Seattle...

You don't see the Wednesday morning shift on the weekly sign-up sheet, even though any volunteer is welcome from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm. When...

“Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.” That's the theme the American Library Association and the Banned Books Coalition have...

We Can’t Forget People Experiencing Incarceration in Our Fight for Readers’ Rights , an essay published today on Book Riot, describes...

What got you interested in BTP to begin with, or what made you start volunteering? I actually started volunteering when my kids were...

What got you interested in BTP to begin with, or what made you start volunteering? Does it tie in to the rest of your life in any...

Michael Winkelhorst has been volunteering with Books to Prisoners for over eight years. He began when we were still in the church...

What got you interested in BTP to begin with, or what made you start volunteering? Does it tie in to the rest of your life in any meaningful way? I remember being quarantined in my small apartment in 2020 while the country contending with tectonic shifts in how it viewed itself brought about by a perfect storm of a pandemic no one knew much about and massive social unrest and global economic decline (I think this is the year we learned about “murder hornets” as well.) I felt

After coming in to wrap packages every Wednesday evening for a couple of years now, Marnie has stepped up to a new level of service....

Kris has volunteered with Books to Prisoners since 1989. Instead of our usual Featured Volunteer questions, we asked her about what it's...