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EPISODE · Mar 25, 2026 · 44 MIN

A Library on Death Row

from The Short Fuse Podcast · host Holly Smith, Nicolas Spradley, Carla Falkner, Elizabeth Howard, Gerald Kent

Episode Notes Big House Books.  Big House Books is a non-profit, volunteer organization that sends free books by request to prisoners in Mississippi correctional facilities in order to promote literacy and be a vehicle of change for prison reform. Big House Books would appreciate your paperback books - westerns, fantasy novels  and science fiction are genres often requested.  Books can be shipped through media mail.  More information on the Big House Books website.  Shower Power. Shower Power is more than a shower. They believe that through faith and serving others they can transform people and the world. They bring  hospitality to the streets by delivering hygiene services to people experiencing homelessness.  It's about taking time to show people you care and restoring their dignity by providing them with the resources they need for self care.  We love people back to life!   Lemuria Bookstore  This year celebrating their 50th anniversary, Lemuria has formed valuable relationships with authors and their readers.  Lemuria believes in the value of the physical book, whether you're a collector in search of a literary gem or you are looking for the latest bestseller. In a digital age, Lemuria is areal bookstore with floor-to-ceiling shelves, that quintessential book smell, and a little bit of Southern hospitality, you’ll feel right at home.  It is beloved in Jackson, Mississippi.  One of the many reasons to visit Jackson.The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that "artists are here to disturb the peace."  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015) and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016).    @elizh24 on Instagram Gerald Kent Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Gerald is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing through full-scale production.  Hannah Brueske, manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor in chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art. Evelyn Rosenthal, copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine The Arts Fuse  Bill Marx, is the editor in chief of The Arts Fuse. For over four decades, he has written about arts and culture for print, broadcast, and online. He has regularly reviewed theater for National Public Radio Station WBUR and The Boston Globe.He created and edited WBUR Online Arts, a cultural webzine that in 2004 won an Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism. In 2007 he created The Arts Fuse, an online magazine dedicated to covering arts and culture in Boston and throughout New England The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication’s over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. There is a robust readership for arts coverage that believes that culture matters. The goal of The Arts Fuse is to treat the arts seriously, to write about them in the same way that other publications cover politics, sports, and business — with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and considerable attitude. The magazine’s motto, from Jonathan Swift, sums up our editorial stance: “Use the point of your pen … not the feather.”  The Arts Fuse has published over 10, 000 articles and receives 80,000+ visits a month. This year the magazine is celebrating its 18th birthday - a milestone for a small, independent magazine dedicated to covering the arts. Assist Arts Fuse in its mission:  keep arts and culture hale and hearty through dialogue, and not just marketing.   Serious criticism, by talking about the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of the arts, plays an indispensable role in the cultural ecology. Smaller, newer organizations need a response. When they are ignored as they are by the mainstream media, they fail to gain an audience. And without an audience, they fold, further weakening the entire ecosystem. SUBSCRIBE to the weekly e-newsletter LIKE The Arts Fuse on Facebook, FOLLOW  on Twitter HELP  The Arts Fuse thrive by providing underwriting for the magazine. Even better — make a tax deductible donation.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Mar 25, 2026

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On March 7th Elizabeth Howard, host of the Short Fuse, moderated a program at Lemuria Bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi entitled: Turning Pages, Changing Lives. The conversation considered the importance of books, communities formed through reading groups and access to libraries and educational courses in Mississippi's carceral system. Panelists included: Carla Falkner, Project Coordinator, Mississippi Humanities Council; Holly Smith, Board Member and Volunteer, Big House Books; and Nicholas Spradley, Executive Director of Shower Power. A video of the program, including the Q&A can be found on the Short Fuse YouTube Channel.

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