Hummingbird in Underworld

At the age of forty-five, Deborah Tobola returns to her birthplace, San Luis Obispo, to work in the very prison her father worked in when he was a student at Cal Poly. But shes not wearing a uniform as he did; shes there to teach creative writing and manage the prisons arts programa dream job. As she creates a theatre program for prisoners, Tobola finds plenty of drama off the stage as well. Inside the razor wire she finds a world frozen in the 50s, with no contact with the outside except by telephone; officers who think prisoners dont deserve programs; bureaucrats who want to cut arts funding; and inmates who steal, or worse. But she loves engaging prisoners in the arts and helping them discover their voices: men like Opie, the gentleman robber; Razor, the roughneck who subscribes to The New Yorker; charismatic Green Eyes, who really has blue eyes; Doo Wop, a singer known for the desserts he creates from prison fare. Alternating between tales of creating drama in prison and Tobolas own story, Hummingbird in Underworld takes readers on an unforgettable literary journeyone that is frank, funny, and fascinating.