The Sing Sing Prison Museum (SSPM), in partnership with Hudson Valley Books for Humanity, is pleased to announce the fall 2026 season of the Short Attention Span Book Club, a free lunchtime discussion group that takes on tough questions about incarceration and social justice through short readings instead of full-length books.
The series meets on the third Tuesday of the month, September through December, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at Hudson Valley Books for Humanity, 67 Central Ave, Ossining. Designed for readers with limited time, each session pairs a short packet of readings with a facilitated discussion rather than a traditional book-length assignment.
Registration is required so participants receive the reading packet in advance; each session is limited to 20 people. Readers are welcome to register for a single session or all four. To register, click HERE.
“There is a compelling group of people who assemble each month to talk about ideas,” says SSPM’s Assistant Director Amy Hufnagel. “They are each unique readers as their concerns and interest in knowing about topics that are largely invisible shines bright.”
This fall’s readings are curated by Adam Roberts, SSPM’s Summer Teshuvah Fellow, who brings his own justice-impacted experience to the selections. Roberts spent 26 years in New York State prisons and returned home in October 2025. He is a writer and multidisciplinary artist whose memoir, Concrete Carnival, was first published in 2016 under a pen name and is being reissued this year under his own name. His writing has appeared in The Marshall Project, Hyperallergic, and at the Vera Institute of Justice. He is a 2026 Haymarket Books Writing Freedom Fellow and a fellow of the American Prison Writing Archive, and also draws, paints murals, and makes comics. Roberts will lead the discussion at each session.
Curator Adam Roberts shared this about his reading selections: “A chocolate bar shared across a visiting room table can feel like three Christmases, and that’s the kind of truth I chose these readings for. Ten pages can hold that much, if they’re the right ten. Come on your lunch break. You’ll leave carrying more than you brought.”
