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News Release
Best-selling author visits prison quilting program to share a message of hope and change - 08/15/19

Marie Bostwick, a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, will visit Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF) in Wilsonville to discuss her most recent novel “Hope on the Inside” with the incarcerated women. The book is rooted in the good work occurring at Oregon’s women’s prison. Since 2002, Coffee Creek Quilters’ (CCQ) dedicated volunteer instructors have provided a positive, hands-on program that gives the students an opportunity to learn and practice many life-enhancing skills.

As Ms. Bostwick puts in her note to the reader, “It began seven years ago, when I saw an exhibit of quilts made by inmates. Though the skill displayed by those incarcerated quilters varied from novice to expert, the quilts they produced were so honest, raw, and emotionally evocative that they truly rose to the level of art.”

Through quilting, the program gives students the opportunity to explore personal creativity and give back to the community. CCQ's goal is to nurture students' self-confidence and self-esteem to enhance their success after release from prison.

Each student in the program makes a total of three quilts during weekly two-hour classes. The first two quilts are donated to a variety of charities that serve seniors in nursing homes, hospitalized children, terminally ill adults, and foster children. Approximately 150 quilts are donated to these charities annually. Students may keep the third quilt or give it to a loved one. The opportunity to give back to the community and to loved ones is extremely important to the students.

In the fall of 2017, the writer visited the facility and saw firsthand the program in action. The book looks at the impacts of prison on the lives of incarcerated women, as well as an inspiring story about a woman searching for purpose and a career much later in life than she ever expected. The book is dedicated to the Coffee Creek Quilters.

On August 16, 2019, Bostwick will return to Coffee Creek to talk with the adults in custody about her book and her inspiration to write it based in a correctional facility. She will meet with CCCF book club members and participants of the quilting program.

View more news releases from Oregon Dept. of Corrections.