Controlled Chaos

Where the Wild Things Read

A zine that highlights the lives of incarcerated library workers through their own writing and illustrations. Jarrod “Deuce” Williams, Knight, and George Coles-El, Mesro the Human Sun tell stories about their work that illuminate the similarities–and the differences–between information access inside and outside the walls.

Library Futures Releases Zine

"The library serves as one of the last footholds for refuge from chaos, alarms, unruly cellies, and harassment." -Knight

"Reading gets me through my feelings of being surrounded by 3500 people and still feeling alone." -Deuce

2024 Research Network Award

Library Futures has long been interested in the library rights of incarcerated people. In 2024, we announced that Megdi Abebe and the up//root collective was awarded a Library Futures Research Network Award to collaborate with the Friends of the San Quentin Library on a zine project to “highlight structural challenges incarcerated library workers and patrons face” by introducing readers to the workers and letting them tell their own stories.

This publication, “Controlled Chaos: Where The Wild Things Read,” is a zine by the workers of the San Quentin Prison Library about their dreams, struggles, and day-to-day lives on the job.

Funding for this project was provided by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

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