• Prison Stories

    Barbara Ball, Taketha Wilkins and Elaine Blanchard at the Shelby County Division of Corrections. Blanchard teaches a class on reading and writing, and personal storytelling.

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  • The Power of Story Telling

    Elaine Blanchard believes in the strength of storytelling, and finds herself spending hours with women who are incarcerated in the Shelby County Division of Corrections.

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  • Elaine Talks About the Project

    Women behind bars are unlocking their future with pen and paper by writing stories from prison with the help of award-winning Minister, Elaine Blanchard.

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About Gone Home Stories

GoneHomeStories.com is a continuation of the Prison Stories Project. Prison Stories is a creative writing and performance project in the Shelby County, TN jail. The program is coordinated by Elaine Blanchard. While serving time in jail, women come together to write and share their life stories. Those same writers will continue to write and share their stories after their release from incarceration on this site.

GoneHomeStories will tell us stories about re-entry. This site is the gathering place after Prison Stories participants are released. This site provides a “home” for their stories to be shared and valued by an on-line community.

Latest Gone Home Stories

  • Grandma’s Girl
    I’m a grandma’s girl. Always have been. My grandma was so proud of me. There were other grandchildren, my brothers and sisters. But I must...
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  • Bountiful Blessing
    “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…” The Lord uses trouble sometimes to get our attention. I don’t think the Lord causes my...
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