Hole Books' editorial goal is to go deeper into underground writing by publishing alternative fiction and poetry. Hole Books also aims to publish first person accounts personalising social issues such as the death penalty and child prostitution. We want to give the ignored of this world megaphones!

Is there life after death row?
The authors of this book prove there is.

I asked Chris Henriquez, a death row inmate, what would he say to the rejecting world he will leave or the afterlife he may have premature entry to? All of a sudden I had a deluge of poems, short stories and essays from him and three of his fellow condemned prisoners, all of whom are of African origin.

What impressed me was the depth of feeling in their writing from those who were supposed to be psychopathically superficial people. Because of laws that may come into being in California, they cannot write directly about the crimes they’ve been convicted of. So what I got instead was Chris’s indignity at the social and political system that profits from demonising Black men and that will promise to fill his death-vacated cell with even more damaged, lost Black men. But also expressed by them all was the love they had for family and friends, and the triumphant rebuilding of their once broken beings.

If they committed the crimes they were convicted of, of course they have done ugly things. But you can’t say they are ugly people who are intrinsically evil. With the contact I have with Death Row inmates, I see a definite maturing process in their writings and thoughts, a lot of pain, and just as much compassion.

There are some things written I do not agree with, but this is not my book. My voice is not locked in a box waiting to be exterminated. It is time to give a voice – not to four Death Row inmates – but to four human beings.

Also just out is 'The Making of a Child Prostitute' by Bobby Gill, one boy's harrowing story about being a child prostitute in India.

Hole Books is an underground press that helps the disempowered express themselves and support themselves financially.