Judith Tannenbaum (1947–2019) was an educator, speaker, poet, and writer. She shared and taught poetry in schools before finding a passion for prison justice and reform. For decades, she taught arts in California state prison systems in partnership with the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 

Through this work, Tannenbaum fostered a 20-year-long friendship with poet Spoon Jackson, and the two recounted their lives and experiences in the double memoir, By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives (New Village Press, 2010). 

Her legacy is further explored in three new books. The Book of Judith: Opening Hearts Through Poetry (New Village Press, 2022), co-edited by Jackson, Mark Foss and Sara Press, That’s a Pretty Thing to Call It: Prose and Poetry by Artists Teaching in Carceral Institutions (New Village Press, 2023), edited by Leigh Sugar, and Judith Letting Go (New Village Press, 2024) by Mark Dowie.

Read more about Judith Tannenbaum HERE.