NOW AVAILABLE: LITERATURE and the NEW CULTURE WARS
Our current “culture wars” have reshaped the politics of secondary literature instruction. Due to a variety of challenges from both the left and the right—to language or subject matter, to potentially triggering content, or to authors who have been canceled—school reading lists are rapidly shrinking.
Deborah Appleman is the Hollis L. Caswell Professor of Educational Studies and director of the Summer Writing Program at Carleton College. She also contributes to Carleton’s American Studies program. Professor Appleman’s recent research has focused on teaching college-level language and literature courses at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater. Her most recent book, Words No Bars Can Hold: Literacy Learning in Prison chronicles her teaching experiences in prison and argues for the importance of liberal arts education for the incarcerated.
Next Event
National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention
Deborah Appleman takes part in three sessions at the 2026 NCTE Annual Convention in Philadelphia. Saturday, November 21 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. ET Celebrating Cathy Fleischer, Retiring Editor of NCTE’s Principles in Practice Book SeriesRoundtable session. Deborah is one... Details National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention
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Professor Appleman taught high school English for nine years before receiving her doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She was also a visiting professor at Syracuse University and at the University of California, Berkeley. She works regularly with high school teachers and students, both nationally and internationally and is a frequent keynote speaker. Professor Appleman continues to teach creative writing and college level classes to the incarcerated. She is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books on literacy instruction, which can be found here.
Recent Blogs by Deborah Appleman
In Defense of Teaching Troubled Texts in Troubling Times
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. ~James Baldwin As the
Stay Free
Monday was Robert’s last class. A big bear of a man, whose gentle demeanor is at odds with his appearance (and probably his record), Robert is being released on Monday, November 24th. This is a rare occurrence, since so many have the guys in our class are serving life sentences. These days, in Minnesota anyway,
The School-to-Prison Pipeline
The School-to-Prison Pipeline I remember, when I was a high school teacher, working with students who I thought were walking a tightrope between going to college and going to jail. Up to this point, my teaching life has insulated me so that I’ve only seen the students who ended up in college. Now I see
