Every year, hundreds of imprisoned writers from around the country submit poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic works to PEN America’s Prison Writing Contest, one of the few outlets of free expression for the country’s incarcerated population. Manuscripts come to the Prison Writing Program in a variety of forms: Some are handwritten, some are typed, some are written in the margins of legal documents. Prizes of $250, $150, $100, $50, and $25 are awarded for first, second, third place, the Dawson Prize, and honorable mentions, respectively, in each of the following categories:

POETRY

First Place

Charles Norman, “How Should I Look?”

Second Place

Christopher Myers, “Tell Me the Story Again About the Frogs, and the Seeds”

Third Place 

Frederic Bertoff, “Chessman’s Lunch”

Dawson Prize

Brian M. Batchelor, “The Destitute”

 

Honorable Mentions

Randy Gometz, “Kite to Kierkegaard”

James Chris Hubbard, “What She Knows”

Donald Lee Swackhammer, “Pirouette”

 

FICTION

First Place

Scott Gutches, “Siddhartha’s Loop”

Second Place

Eric Boyd, “The Examination”

Third Place

Corey Jasmin, “The Target”

Dawson Prize

Denis Martinez, “Catching the Setting Sun”

 

Honorable Mentions

Ezekiel Caligiuri, “The Purple Horizon: A Short Story about Dying”

Michael Romero, “A Day in the Life of a Prisoner”

J.E. Wantz, “After Prison”

 

MEMOIR

First Place

Ezekiel Caligiuri, “The Last Visit from the Girl in the Willow Tree”

Second Place

Chasity West, “Accomplice”

Third Place

Terrence Sampson, “Planted in Concrete”

 

Honorable Mentions

Jason Cooper, “Bringer of Fire”

Burl N. Corbett, “My Father’s Violin”

Leonard Scovens, “How I Became My Father”

 

ESSAY

First Place

Atif Rafay, “Bleak Housing and Black Americans”

Second Place

Greg Goodman, “Seven Thousand Yesterdays”

Third Place

Eugene Dey, “A Good Dude”

Dawson Prize

Julian Conception, “Beauty”

 

Honorable Mentions

John Adams, “Commissary Day”

Joseph Dole, “Illinois Abolishes Death Penalty”

William Steed Kelley, “The Stew of Discontent”

 

Drama

First Place

Robert Weaver, “Somewhere Between”

Second Place

Stephen David Long, “Probe”

Third Place

Joseph Allen Jr., “Crabtree”

Dawson Prize

Christopher Myers, “The Marvel of the World”

 

Honorable Mentions

Anthony Ramírez, “Jail Play”

Keith Sanders, “Little Sunshine”

Matthew G. Walker, “The Meridian”

Christian J. Weaver, “Tom & Gerry”