"Dear Stranger / The Wayfarer," by Ralph C Hamm III, is powerful collection of poems reissued and still as fresh and raw as the day they were originally published in 1979. It is said that the more things change the more they stay the same; thus, it is in the reading of "Dear Stranger/The Wayfarer." Although written in the nineteen-seventies, when Ralph was in his twenties and fighting for his very survival in the then touted most dangerous prison (per capita) in America-Walpole State Prison in South Walpole, Massachusetts-the reflections and socio-political/economic realities of that bygone...

"Blackberry Juice" by Ralph C. Hamm III, is an impressive collection of short stories, essays, poetry, and a full length play, from a remarkable man who has spent 46 years of his life in prison for a non capital offense when he was 17. It contains a wide range of his writing styles that not only attest to his talent as a writer but also to his insight, vision, and intellect as a leader of stature in the prison reform movement and the black community in general. It is powerful book, not a palliative full of mellifluous words attempting to soften the implications of the harsh truths of racism...