Person
Every book Dwayne Betts recommended on podcasts
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Dwayne Betts appears on, in one place — not just one.
Dwayne Betts is a poet and writer who discussed his literary background, experiences in the prison system, and editorial projects during appearances on The Book Review and EconTalk. Betts recalled receiving a copy of Dudley Randall's anthology The Black Poets while he was in solitary confinement, an event that profoundly shaped his path toward poetry. He also discussed his involvement with the King family's speech collections, detailing how he lobbied to write the introduction for the publication of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail and describing the structure of I Have a Dream. Additionally, Betts recounted a formative educational experience involving Jostein Gaarder's philosophy introduction Sophie's World, which his teacher mistakenly substituted with William Styron's novel Sophie's Choice while he was in county jail. He explained how reading Sophie's Choice at age sixteen completely altered his worldview, opened his mind to complex literature, and launched his lifelong engagement with profound narratives addressing human suffering and moral philosophy.
Books recommended by Dwayne Betts
-
The Black Poets
The Black Poets by Dudley Randall is an influential and expansive poetry anthology that preserves and celebrates foundational works of African American verse.
Discussed“I mean I didn't expect to be a poet but it was r that somebody I was in the ho and I asked for a book and somebody slid this book called the black poets under my cell door”
Where to get it
-
Barkskins
Barkskins by Annie Proulx is an expansive historical fiction novel that follows several generations of families clearing the great forests of North America.
Discussed“he said man but I picked up this book bar skins he's like you know this novel man it's a boat a town it's just like the town where my family comes from”
Where to get it
-
Black Boy
Black Boy by Richard Wright is a powerful autobiographical chronicle detailing the author's harrowing upbringing in the American South, marked by systemic racism, poverty, and isolation, followed by his awakening through reading and his eventual escape to Chicago.
Discussed“it was sort of that like enough about the holocaust i thought like what book will i choose and and you know i was thinking about rape because i was i was reading it in the moment right richard writes black boy and i and i chose”
Where to get it
-
I Have a Dream
Discussed“and the first book was I have a dream and it was the introduction was written um by King's children and and it's cool the book is actually paginated and laid out as king spoke so you could actually read it and kind of embody his voice almost almost like a poem”
Where to get it
-
Invisible Man
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is a landmark twentieth-century American novel that explores the complex themes of identity, race, and societal invisibility through the eyes of an unnamed Black narrator moving from the American South to Harlem.
Discussed“um because and i'll talk about invisible man in a second but he's the kind of person who put a lot of pressure on himself to write the first book”
Where to get it
-
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach is an allegorical novella about a seagull learning about flight, self-perfection, and breaking free from the rigid conformity of his flock.
Discussed“I would sneak a booking to myself at night and read it and I got all caught up in like you know like the Jonathan Livingston Seagull Books and so um I had them in my cell”
Where to get it
-
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
Discussed“and they said yeah letter from a Birmingham Jail and I said what kind of fool am I and and I said wait a minute let me ask you something because they had people writing introductions I said is anybody WR the introduction for that one CU I should I should write that one”
Where to get it
-
Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.
Discussed“and i've read other books that you know i mean we sent 1500 copies of um of um franco's book man search for meaning”
Where to get it
-
Sophie's Choice
Sophie's Choice by William Styron is a powerful and tragic novel that examines guilt, suffering, and moral survival in the aftermath of the Holocaust, famously adapted into an acclaimed film starring Meryl Streep.
Discussed“I think you want to read Sophie's Choice and that's the same book and you know what I'm like 16 and it's like whoa is me and then I read Sophie's choice and my world is blown and I go from from Sophie's Choice to the confessions of that turning”
Where to get it
-
Sophie's World
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder is a popular philosophical novel that tells the story of a young girl who is introduced to the major thinkers of the Western philosophical canon.
Discussed“he wouldn't introduced me to this book called um called um Sophie's World and it was like this 1500 word um book it was a young girl who who ended up meeting like all the great philosophers right and it was an intro to philosophy book”
Where to get it
-
The Chosen
The Chosen by Chaim Potok is a compelling contemporary novel that explores the complex dynamics of friendship, faith, and cultural identity within a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn.
Discussed“um and then i think no i mean i don't i read the chosen you know i read i've read a few other books you know and i connected with the chosen”
Where to get it
-
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
The Love Songs of W.E.B.
Discussed“honoree Jeffers uh I think her book won the national book of world but um the the love songs of W.E.B Du Bois you know her publisher gave us like 30 copies and we sent it to a group of guys in a prison in Texas”
Where to get it
-
The Stand
The Stand by Stephen King is a post-apocalyptic horror epic that follows the remnants of humanity struggling to rebuild society after a lethal influenza strain wipes out most of the global population.
Discussed“my oldest son he loves the loves Stephen King and he likes to book the stand and he was like I want you to read this and it's like 1500 pages and I'm like I don't want to read this but um I'm reading it and I'm finding it fascinating”
Where to get it
Books Dwayne Betts wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poems About the Challenges of Life After Prison | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 1 |
| Injustice and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (with Dwayne Betts) | EconTalk | 2024-06-03 | 2 |
| Dwayne Betts on Beauty, Prison, and Redaction | EconTalk | 2023-01-23 | 9 |
| Dwayne Betts on Ellison, Levi, and Human Suffering | EconTalk | 2022-05-02 | 5 |
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I had read the the books about mass incarceration I had read worse than slavery slavery by another name I read these things”
“I had read the the books about mass incarceration I had read worse than slavery slavery by another name I read these things”