What is the role of multi-species ecologies in creating spaces that counteract the violence in carceral systems and environmental destruction?  This book brings together, for the first time, contributions on issues related to prison, jail, and reentry programs, community-based interventions, environmental justice, and sustainability.  Through rigorous analysis, detailed case studies, poetry, and personal reflections, the book offers ways of thinking and acting at the intersection of environmental issues and the carceral system.  It gathers hard-earned wisdom and insight of researchers, activists, practitioners, and community leaders from within and beyond prison walls who have taken up their projects despite profound institutional constraints.

Approaches in the book range from reform to abolition, as authors detail both practical interventions and imaginative courses of action.  More than a contribution to academic knowledge, the book also uniquely highlights voices of those who are incarcerated, survivors of crime, and institutional stakeholders.  In addition to writing about the carceral system based on research and personal experience, authors describe practices that are creating transformative spaces of environmental education, building effective pipelines for green workforce development, and sustaining reciprocal relationships for eco-social healing. 

Willie Nelson, Joe Ely, Marcia Ball, Tish Hinojosa, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lyle Lovett...the list of popular songwriters from Texas just goes on and on. In this collection of thirty-four interviews with these and other songwriters, Kathleen Hudson pursues the stories behind the songs, letting the singers' own words describe where their songs come from and how the diverse, eclectic cultures, landscapes, and musical traditions of Texas inspire the creative process.

Conducted in dance halls, dressing rooms, parking lots, clubs-wherever the musicians could take time to tell their stories-the interviews are refreshingly spontaneous and vivid. Hudson draws out the songwriters on such topics as the sources of their songs, the influence of other musicians on their work, the progress of their careers, and the nature of Texas music. Many common threads emerge from these stories, while the uniqueness of each songwriter becomes equally apparent. To round out the collection, Hudson interviews Larry McMurtry and Darrell Royal for their perspectives as longtime friends and fans of Texas musicians. She also includes a brief biography and discography of each songwriter.