Campus Connection

Deborah Appleman teaches college-level language, literature at Minnesota correctional facility

A professor who has taught college-level language and literature courses at a correctional facility in Stillwater, Minnesota, recently edited an anthology of her students’ work. She will share her experiences during a UW-La Crosse presentation as part of the La Crosse Reads community-wide book read. [caption id="attachment_48013" align="alignright" width="150"] Deborah Appleman[/caption] Deborah Appleman, the Hollis L. Caswell professor of educational studies and director of the Summer Writing Program at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, will give an address at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in 2160 Grandad Bluff Room, Student Union. A book signing with Appleman begins at 6 p.m. The presentation is free and part of La Crosse Reads, a community-wide, grass-roots book read that is part of a $14,000 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grant received by the UWL English Department and the La Crosse Public Library. Area libraries, schools and other organizations are joining with a variety of programming. Additional support for Appleman’s visit has been provided by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the School of Education, and Murphy Library Endowment. Appleman's recent research has focused on teaching college-level language and literature courses at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater for inmates who are interested in pursuing post-secondary education. She recently edited an anthology of her students' work, “From the Inside Out: Letters to Young Men and Other Writings Poetry and Prose from Prison.” [caption id="attachment_48014" align="aligncenter" width="685"] Carleton College Professor Deborah Appleman has taught college-level language and literature courses at a correctional facility in Stillwater, Minnesota. She recently edited an anthology of her students’ work. Appleman will share her story at a UWL presentation Thursday, Feb. 23, as part of the La Crosse Reads community-wide book read.[/caption] Appleman taught high school English for nine years before receiving a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She was also a visiting professor at Syracuse University and the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of “Reading for Themselves: How to Transform Adolescents into Lifelong Readers Through Out-of-Class Book Clubs,” “Teaching Literature to Adolescents,” “Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents,” “Braided Lives: An Anthology of Multicultural American Writing” and most recently, “Adolescent Literacy and the Teaching of Reading.” La Crosse Read’s featured book is Ernest J. Gaines’ novel, “A Lesson Before Dying,” that tells the story of a young teacher’s relationship with a death-row inmate wrongfully convicted of robbery and murder, and how this unusual relationship affects the community of a small, fictional Cajun town. UWL is one of only 77 non-profit organizations nationwide that received grants totaling more than $1 million for Big Read projects running through June 2017. The goal of a Big Read, according to the NEA, is “to broaden our understanding of our world, our communities and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.”