voice of witness series

i’ve read the last few VoW titles, and find them incredibly touching and telling about the political, social and cultural climates in the US today.  mcsweeney’s has spun VoW out into it’s on non-profit.  way to go!  and gotta say, big props goto dave eggers and his work with VoW and the 826 sites.

and, thanks to mcsweeney’s for giving a voice to these witnesses.

We want to tell you, as well, about something you may have seen on our website this week—our Voice of Witness series, which now functions as its own noble nonprofit, is steaming toward its fifth title, which’ll be a collection of oral histories from Zimbabwe. But—but—for that book to be the best it can be, VOW is in need of your support. A $25 donation buys a tape recorder; $50 pays for an interviewer’s food and transportation for two days; $100 covers a week’s worth of work by a translator and transcriber. If you’d like to help, their site is the one to steer toward (or to pass along to beneficent friends). And—and—those donations enumerated above will earn you a gift in return: for $100, VOW will send you a set of the series thus far (four books, signed by Dave Eggers and the other editors); for $50, you’ll receive a signed (by Dave Eggers and Craig Walzer) copy of the latest collection, Out of Exile; and for $25, you’ll have a very fine, albeit unsigned, Voice of Witness T-shirt. Not bad, right? Whatever you can do, we thank you.

i already own 2 of the series, but might get the whole series again with sigs to contribute and have spare copies for sharing!