The Pathfinder Network • PATHfinder and POPS Club Anthologies

Ten Years of Anthologies

Since its founding in 2013, POPS the Club published a collection each year of poetry, stories, essays, and artwork created by club members. These books are healing for families, relished by students from elementary school through college, used in prisons and detention centers as inspiration, and praised by librarians, educators, and literary journals.

In 2023, The Pathfinder Network assumed operation of POPS the Club, carrying on their publishing legacy and incorporating student work from members of The PATHfinder Club.

PATHfinder and POPS Club anthologies are published by Out of the Woods Press. Out of the Woods Press was established to dismantle barriers and to challenge the notion that some lives matter more than others. We publish stories, poetry, and artwork created by people whose lives have been impacted by incarceration, detention, and deportation.

PURCHASE AN ANTHOLOGY

Home and Away: Poetry, Stories & Art

The young artists of The PATHfinder and POPS Clubs whose poetry, stories, and art are represented in Home and Away let readers in on their vulnerability and longing, their tenderness and understanding. They write of dreams of bright futures and of challenging pasts. With each piece, we are invited to dive more deeply into their truths.

And in this powerful collection we learn that when youth feel safe, seen, nourished, and respected, they can fully express themselves. These creators’ lives have been impacted by carceral systems, and because their clubs offer spaces where they are seen, heard, and respected, they have breathed extraordinary life and light into their creations.

BOOK FLYER

Advice to 9th Graders: Stories, Poetry, Art & Other Wisdom

Early in this volume of poetry, essays, stories, and wisdom created by the youth of The PATHfinder Club and POPS the Club and edited by Amy Friedman, Tamira Shany advises readers that we have just two options: “Take pride and fail or endure and succeed.”

As you dive into Advice to 9th Graders (designed to guide 9th graders as they navigate high school but equally inspiring for the rest of us), we begin to understand that these young people are steering us toward endurance. As Rachael Galper’s photograph, Biased Comparisons, so beautifully illustrates, the best course is to find a way to express yourself without fear of judgment.

BOOK FLYER