by Malcolm Ivey

Letters to the Universe: Essays on crime, craft, and the middle way, 2014-2023. Published March 2024. Available at Amazon. Ebook coming soon.

“Are you only going to write about prisoners?” a cellmate once asked while making a face like I forgot to wipe the toilet seat. Yes, I realized after mulling his question. Yes, I am. What else was I going to write about? Aeronautics? High sea piracy? The mating habits of the common draccus? I had spent my life playing poker in dayrooms, pumping parlay tickets on rec yards, doubling back in chow hall lines, doing pushups in the box . . . By the time I hit my mid-thirties I had a PhD in prison life. Who was better equipped to tell these stories than I was? And more importantly, who was going to if I didn’t?

If you’ve ever read any of the novels, you are probably aware of the fact that I don’t write about innocent people. I write about everyday people who find themselves in these hopeless places. That’s who I see when I set down this pen and poke my head out the cell door. Everyday people. Sons, brothers, husbands, dads, Americans. Very few monsters, just a bunch of grown children—inmates and guards alike. And although the narrative thread of my stories must inevitably wind through a prison at some point, what I’m really writing about is love and longing and redemption. The human experience. The universal story.

MALCOLM IVEY lives and writes in Northwest Florida. This is his first nonfiction book. He has also written six novels, including the award-winning “On the Shoulders of Giants” and the Miranda Rights series. Visit his website at www.MalcolmIvey.com