With major philanthropic support, The New Press has undertaken a collaborative effort with the re-entry program created and run by Susan Burton to place over 10,000 copies of Burton’s memoir in prisons, jails, re-entry programs, and community centers across the country. Written with Cari Lynn, Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women chronicles Burton’s own years of incarceration followed by successful re-entry and activism.

The special paperback edition is being distributed exclusively through prisons and re-entry programs and includes new material Burton has written specifically for women and men with firsthand experiences with the carceral system. In partnership with A New Way of Life, Ms. Burton’s re-entry organization, The New Press will distribute copies of the paperback edition free of charge in all fifty states; whenever possible, Susan Burton will visit prisons in connection with the distribution of the books.

On Monday, January 15, Becoming Ms. Burton won the 2018 NAACP Image Award for outstanding literary work in the biography/autobiography category and in November 2017 the book was awarded the inaugural Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice. Susan Burton is a Starbucks® “Upstander,” a CNN Top 10 Hero, a Soros Justice Fellow, a Policy Fellow with the Women’s Foundation of California, and a Violence Prevention Fellow with the California Wellness Foundation.

“We are so proud to have published this stunning memoir and manifesto,” said New Press publisher Ellen Adler. “Susan’s story not only has the power to inspire and change lives, it is also helping to inspire real policy reform. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to publish a special paperback edition so swiftly after the hardcover was released, and to get it in to the hands of incarcerated people—some of the readers who will appreciate it most.”