THE GRAYBAR HOTEL

WHICH WAY OUT, is a stunning, gritty, and sometimes tender evocation of life behind prison walls. The narrative is driven by one protagonist as he experiences the highs and deep lows of prison life. Evoking the style of George Saunders, and in the vein of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, the stories stand on their own, but together, create an even richer mosaic.

“We couldn’t see out the van’s windows, so we got our first view of prison when we stepped out into the rain, and even then all we could see was a half-mile of concrete wall. The enormity of the wall was enough to shut us all up. We were a chatty group before, but now each of us stayed quiet, looking down the length of what seemed to be the rest of our lives.”

The success of Making a Murderer, Serial, Orange is the New Black, and Michelle Alexander’s acclaimed The New Jim Crow tell us that we are finally recognizing the people who live long-term within the strange, closed world of the prison system, and hearing their voices.

“I don't know if you ever met Curt Dawkins before the murder and incarceration. His writing back then reminded me of Sherwood Anderson--a similar attention to detail and mood. In person he had beautiful, considerate manners. He loved writing. I'm glad he still has that," says Stuart Dybek, who taught Dawkins in the Western Michigan University MFA program.

Having published just a few pieces in VICE and in the independent literary magazine BULL, Dawkins’ novel-in-stories, WHICH WAY OUT, is a stunning, gritty, and sometimes tender evocation of life behind prison walls. The narrative is driven by one protagonist as he experiences the highs and deep lows of prison life. Evoking the style of George Saunders, and in the vein of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, the stories stand on their own, but together, create an even richer mosaic.

So, who is Curtis Dawkins?

Dawkins grew up in rural Illinois and earned an MFA in fiction writing at Western Michigan University (though was accepted into Iowa) because he wanted to study with Stuart Dybek. He struggled with alcohol and substance abuse through most of his life, and on Halloween 2004, after taking drugs he never had before, killed a man during in a botched home robbery. Since late-2005, he’s served a life-sentence in various prisons throughout Michigan. He has three children with his partner, Kim, who is a writing professor living in Portland, Oregon.