I received Channeling Mark Twain: A Novel, by Carol Muske-Dukes from the lovely Felicia over at Writers Revealed for a podcast, but she has switched from podcasts to written interviews for now.

The idea behind Channeling Mark Twain fascinated me – the story of a young woman, fresh out of graduate school in the 1970s, trying to help the female inmates of Riker’s Island off Manhattan. She first starts bringing money collected for bail, then works in the After-Care (trying to help released prisoners get jobs), and she starts to teach a Poetry class. This is a somewhat autobiographical novel about life in the 70s, pimps, prisoners, and corrections officers.

Little did I know that Channeling Mark Twain would challenge me on so many levels. Read the rest of the review