Cooking in Maximum Security: new from Half Press: EVENTS

 Celebrating Cooking in Maximum Security with events in Chicago

Events in celebration of Cooking in Maximum Security

Our latest book Cooking in Maximum Security, compiled by Matteo Guidi is off to a great start with shipments of several hundred copies to stores and mail order customers in the first month. Cory Doctorow recently wrote about the book for his blog, calling it “remarkable” and writing:

One thing that sets Cooking in Maximum Security apart from other prison cookbooks is the unique character of Italian maximum security prisons, in which visitors are allowed to bring a fairly large variety of goods to inmates, and where the commissary is stocked with an incredible variety of basic ingredients, including things like goat and beef livers (the book reproduces an entire commissary menu, with prices, as an appendix). Prisoners have access to beer and wine, and find endless uses for old beer cans. The book also drops in casual clues about life in an Italian prison, for example, when it suggests getting your wooden stirrer by taking down a crucifix and using that.

Matteo Guidi is visiting Chicago for two events next week—his first time in this city and our first time meeting him in person! The first event is on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 6-8 PM at Walls Turned Sideways (2717 W. Madison St. Chicago, IL 60612). Matteo Guidi will present his project Cooking in Maximum Security and will be in conversation with Joe Sorrentino who spent 42 years in Illinois state prisons, and was wrongfully convicted under Operation Greylord. The second event is on Thursday, December 11, 2025, 7-8:30 PM at Pilsen Community Books (1102 W. 18th St. Chicago, IL 60608). Cooking and Inventing in Maximum Security: Matteo Guidi and Marc Fischer of Temporary Services/Half Letter Press presenting and discussing Cooking in Maximum Security and Prisoners' Inventions. We are grateful to Walls Turned Sideways and Pilsen Community Books for hosting these events, and to Matteo for traveling to Chicago in the winter. We hope you’ll warm him and each other with your presence! Copies of Matteo’s book and Prisoners’ Inventions will be available at both events. —Marc & Brett