Historical fiction has long been a staple in the social studies, history, and English curricula of primary and secondary education. Such commercial and critical successes might be linked to the genre's unique ability to blend educational, didactic, historical, and aesthetic concerns in children's literature, aspects that are heightened…

Laura Bates, an associate professor of English at Indiana State University, teaches college courses at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, but her Shakespeare workshop is a rarer undertaking, with a startling history. About six years ago, an inmate in one of her college-degree courses was sent from the general population to the "SHU"--the…