Poet Judith Tannenbaum, the author of By Heart: Poetry, Prison and Two Lives, is presenting her work at Featherstone on Thursday, August 19 at 6:30 p.m.

By Heart is a two-person memoir she wrote with a prisoner in San Quentin, where she teaches poetry to those without hope for parole. Her coauthor, Spoon Jackson, was Judith’s student at San Quentin in the 1980s, where he found himself as a poet and writer, and played Pozzo in the prison’s 1988 production of Waiting for Godot. Mr. Jackson, who is serving a life sentence, is now teaching writing classes in New Folsom Prison.

He explains in By Heart how he came to words and poetry: “Preprison, my life had never been one of words. I could barely read, and I spoke as my father did to me, in one word sentences, shrugs, or by nodding my head. But during the months I was on trial, I sat stunned by all the words the DA used. I had no idea what these words meant and I told myself then that I would not let unknown words trap me. I started studying the dictionary in the county jail and reading all I could. . .

“I learned a few new words each day and each one brought a geyser erupting inside my mind and soul. The more words I read and studied, the clearer life became. I became richer and deeper inside.”

On Friday, August 20 at 3:15, Ms. Tannenbaum will hold a workshop at Dukes County Jail with Fan Ogilvie and Katy Upsom, whose work with prisoners there will be published next week in a book entitled Poems from the Gray Bar Hotel.