I grew up in an economically depressed neighborhood of inner city Houston called Acres Homes. After a rather successful criminal career, I was finally convicted of an aggravated robbery of a convenience store and sentenced to twelve years. During this period of incarceration, I spent an enormous amount of time reading literature and philosophy. After about three years of incarceration, I decided that I wanted to write and have done so nearly every day since then. I have completed one novel in the last eight years and have another one currently in progress. Yet to publish any books, I have had a wide variety of pieces published in literary journals, academic journals, newspapers and radical zines. I am one semester shy of completing an M.A. in Literature from the University of Houston, Clear Lake, and will be released and finished with my sentence shortly after that on November 21, 2007.
Clifford Barnes
Articles by Clifford Barnes
Interview: Clifford Barnes
QUESTION: What was the spark that made you begin writing in prison? When did it occur? CLIFFORD BARNES:I didn’t begin writing in prison. I wrote as a youngster, not just for school crap, but for myself. Both my brother and I would write poetry and stories and show them to each other. My brother was
Hiding Franz Fanon
Scene 2 (Building Major Lenny Bealy sits behind his desk, hunting and pecking on a dummy terminal. A knock sounds on the door.) Major: Yeah. C’mon in, Shakir. (Enter Shakir, wide-eyed.) Major: Close the door. Sit. (Shakir closes the door, sits down.) Major: Hold on just a second. (Major continues to hunt and peck for
To Be Beaten On Your Birthday Means You’re Loved
I was kicked out of the dormitories, moved back to the cellblock I had lived on before living on the dorms. All my worldly possessions—all of which fit into a two cubic-foot space . . . hopefully—weighed down on me like the disappointment I felt as I lugged them back to the A-1 block. When