From 1988 to 1993, the Publishing for Literacy Project, a collaboration of the Adult Literacy Resource Institute and the Public Library of Brookline, produced four volumes of Need I Say More, a literary magazine of adult student writings.

This project also sponsored several annual Writers' Weekends where adult learners who had been published in the
magazine attended a writing retreat at Thompson's Island in the Boston Harbor, or at Woolman Hill, a farm in Western
Massachusetts.

Many issues of Need I Say More  are still available. For more information, call Steve Reuys at 617/782-8956, ext. 14

Here are some samples from the magazine:
 

       From Volume II, Number 3, Fall 1989

       Chilling

       by Henry Graves

       I was chilling in John's Pizza House
       In Chinatown you see,
       Someone came in and a few left back out,
       The ones that stayed had stories to tell
       While the night girls had their pretty bodies for sale
       But check this out
       There were a few guys
       Who thought they were making that cold hard cash
       But we all know that it only lasts for so long.
       How long will that be?
 

       POEMS

       by Ada Cherry

       Poems are the pit of
       A sense of a Great Imagination
       It gives affection to the Heart
       Mind, Body and Soul.

       Soul
       Body
       Mind.
 

From Volume III, Number 1, Winter 1990
 

      Japanese Food in America

       by Mayumi Hairston

       I chose to write about Japanese food because it is a part of my culture. I am half Japanese and half Black
       American. As a child, I remember eating Japanese food, and it was a special thing when my mother cooked or
       prepared Japanese food. My brothers and sisters and I would sit at the table, and our mouths would be watering
       waiting for that special dish to be served.

       I have always been fascinated by Japanese food. The fish is so fresh. It is often eaten raw. The vegetables are
       so perfectly and lightly fried, steamed or grilled.

       I like that the dishes are served with a simplicity that permits us to taste the flavors and experience tastes. It is
       the way it looks, tastes and is served that attracts me as an eater. The size of the Japanese portions is something
       that I find inviting.

       In American we are mostly a meat and potatoes people. Recently, however, changes have been occurring in our
       eating habits. Important numbers of people are seriously concerned over the nutritional problems of a high fat
       diet. Nutritional concerns even penetrated the culinary bastions of haute cuisine with the result that the
       traditional French chef's pride, the rich, butter-laden sauce, is no longer welcome.

       My favorite type of Japanese dish is tempura.