CWF LEAD ARTISTS: MARGO PERIN
GRANT AMOUNT: $34,000
       
 

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ONLY THE DEAD CAN KILL

Project Title: Only the Dead Can Kill
Recipient Organization: Community Works
Lead Artist: Margo Perin
Genre and Date Awarded: Literary Arts, June 2004
To be Completed: January 2006

Community Works and Margo Perin will collaborate to create Only the Dead Can Kill, a book, CD, and web page featuring autobiographical stories created by Perin and inmates in San Francisco County Jail. With Perin as artist-facilitator, 20 inmates will write about their experiences of childhood, parenting, physical and substance abuse, and criminality. Perin will write on the same elements in her life story of being raised by a criminal father.

The project’s title and theme emphasize that only when people are shut off from their own humanity can they brutalize themselves and others: Inmates are often not only perpetrators, but the victims of crime themselves, and rarely are given opportunities to heal from their victimization. Perin writes, “I hope this work will help to create a bridge across the two sides of the criminal divide and make a significant contribution to restorative justice, which brings victims and perpetrators together for the healing of self and community.”

The stories will become part of a professionally designed and printed book. The accompanying CD will include oral selections from the book, as read by Perin and the inmates, and will incorporate ambient sounds from the jail environment, allowing inmates the opportunity to draw upon and present their spoken word traditions, and giving story-tellers, often with low levels of literacy, the opportunity to let the emotion of their words draw listeners’ attention to what they are saying. The web site also will incorporate audio material and increase potential audiences for the finished work.

Only the Dead Can Kill is inspired by Perin’s previous work with inmates and ex-offenders, as well as her own experiences with the criminality of her gangster father, who was jailed several times and kept her family on the run to escape a 20-year prison sentence. Her childhood was marked by alcoholism, violence, and sudden, unexplained movement throughout the United States and abroad. Perin, through her own writing, has realized the power of writing about these experiences and seeks to inspire inmates to shed light on their own life experiences.

A Pushcart Prize nominee and award-winning author of short fiction and narrative nonfiction, Margo Perin is part-author and editor of How I Learned to Cook and Other Writings on Complex Mother-Daughter Relationships (Tarcher/Penguin, 2004). This anthology of personal narratives was inspired by her writing on her ambivalent relationship with her mother. Perin’s memoir, Moving Target, is currently being considered for publication as is Writing Out of the Dark, a nonfiction book on the interrelationship between writing craft and process. She has published short fiction and narrative nonfiction in an array of journals. Although Perin has worked in the jails as a guest artist in the past, this project represents a marked departure from her previous work in its duration and collaborative nature, as well as in the media that will be used to document and anthologize the writing produced.

For over 20 years, Community Works has been dedicated to using the arts and education as a catalyst for change among underserved populations in the San Francisco Bay Area, including offenders, ex-offenders, and at-risk youth. Its director Ruth Morgan developed the San Francisco Jail Arts program in conjunction with the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department in the 1980s, and established Community Works as an independent organization in 1994. Community Works has received a number of prestigious awards including the 1999 New American Community Award from the National Center for Crime and Delinquency for innovative criminal justice programs for adults and youth and a 2004 Special Commendation from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for ROOTS, an after-school program for children of incarcerated parents.

LEAD ARTIST

Margo Perin

RESUME HIGHLIGHTS

Publications

  • How I Learned to Cook, editor and essayist, Tarcher/Penguin (2004)
  • Treasure House, short fiction (1994)
  • Painted Hills Review, short fiction (1994)
  • Youtalkintame?, short fiction (1993)
  • Tenderloin Times, feature articles (1992)
  • California Tomorrow, feature articles (1990)
  • Issues, personal narrative (1986)
  • World University News, personal narrative and feature articles (1985)

Agented Projects Currently Being Considered for Publication

  • Moving Target, memoir
  • Writing out of the Dark, (on writing craft and process)

Productions of Literary Work

  • “What She Would Say,” Film by Erica Jordan (1996)
  • “Geography,” excerpt of personal narrative broadcast on KPFA Radio
  • “Rhino Fresh,” production in Ethnic Cleansing Downy Fresh, Marin Headlands, Sausalito, California (1994)
  • “What She Would Say,” production, Lionheart Theater, Chicago, Illinois (1993)

Awards

  • Honorable Mention for Creative Nonfiction, Professional and Amateur Writers Association (2002)
  • Prize for Creative Nonfiction, North Texas Professional Writers Association (2000)
  • Short Fiction Nomination, Pushcart Prize (1995)
  • Semi-finalist for “Geography,” James Award for Fiction of the Heekin Foundation
  • Treasure House prize for short fiction
  • Paintbrush award for short fiction

Creative Writing Instructor/Guest Artist

  • University of California, Berkeley, Extension (1996-present)
  • Adjunct Faculty, MFA Writing, University of San Francisco (1997-present)
  • University of California at Santa Cruz Extension (1998-present)
  • Writing Out of the Dark, San Francisco, California (1995-present)
  • Master Class, San Francisco, California (2002-present)
  • San Francisco County Jails, San Francisco, California (2002-03)
  • Art for Recovery for People with Cancer, Mount Zion Hospital, San Francisco, California (2002-03)
  • Writing Workshop for Women Challenged by Breast Cancer, San Francisco, California (2000-02)
  • The Jewish Community Center, San Francisco, California (1993-99)
  • Harvey Milk Institute, San Francisco, California (1996)
  • Spectrum Community Center, San Anselmo, California (1995-96)
  • The Writing Parlor, San Francisco, California (1994-96)
  • San Bruno Senior Center, San Bruno, California (1993-95)
  • Mount Zion Institute, San Francisco, California (1993-94)
  • Golden Gate Senior Center, San Francisco, California (1993)

International Workshops

  • Creative Writing Workshops, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (1996-present)
  • Il Chiostro, Tuscany, Italy (1996-2000)
  • Writing from your Inner Landscapes, Madrid, Spain (2000)

Teaching Positions

  • Education Officer (responsible for English Language Courses), The British Refugee Council, London, England (1984-86)
  • Tenured Professor of English/English Curriculum Specialist, Paddington College, London, England (1980-84)
  • Adjunct Faculty in English, Inner London Adult Education Institute, London, England (1977-80)

Residencies

  • Norcroft Writers’ Colony, Duluth, Minnesota (2000)
  • Hedgebrook Writers’ Colony, Whidbey Island, Washington (1999)

Selected Readings and Appearances

  • California Writers Club (2004)
  • New York University (2004)
  • Yale University Barnes and Noble Bookstore (2004)
  • National Public Radio, Talk of the Nation (2004)
  • KALW, Book Talk (2004)
  • KPFA, Morning Show(2004)
  • KRON4 TV, Weekend Daybreak(2004)
  • San Francisco Public Library (2004)
  • A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books (2004)
  • Book Passage (2004)
  • Diesel Books (2004)

Professional Affiliations

  • PEN
  • National Writers Union
  • Associated Writing Programs

LINKS

www.margoperin.com