One Big Self: An Investigation - A Deep Dive into Identity and Self-Discovery | Perfect for Book Clubs, Psychology Enthusiasts, and Personal Growth Journeys

Inspired by visits to Louisiana state prisons—where MacArthur fellow C.D. Wright accompanied portrait photographer Deborah Luster—One Big Self bears witness to incarcerated men and women and speaks to the corrosive toll of protracted confinement. It is a mixture of distinct voices, epistles, fragments from an antique and aggressively pious board game, road signage, prison data, inmate correspondence, and inventories of things—from baby teeth to chigger bites. As Wright proposes in her introduction: “Not to idealize, not to judge, not to exonerate, not to aestheticize immeasurable levels of pain. Not to demonize, not anathematize. What I wanted was to unequivocally lay out the real feel of hard time.”
 
The original photobook edition of One Big Self, featuring photographs by Deborah Luster, was selected by the New York Times and Village Voice as a notable photography book of the year. This new edition features the poem exclusively.