Every year, hundreds of writers in prisons around the country submit works to PEN America’s Prison Writing Contest. This year’s submissions spoke to the resilience, individuality, and indomitable artistry of writers inside prison walls. While we celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s winners, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the devastating aftermath of the pandemic’s second year, which saw the eruption of carceral facilities as viral hotspots, empty promises of decarceration, and vast disparities in prison health care. In a time of acute disaster, this contest presents writers, poets, and playwrights with a conduit for their experiences, imagination, and indispensable literary voices. S
With special thanks to our Prison Writing Committee, who spent hours intimately involved with the thousands of submitted works to curate these incredible pieces. These pieces will be publicly available on our website, and are also included in our 2021 print anthology, Visiting the Blues.
PEN AMERICA
2021 PRISON WRITING AWARD WINNERS
POETRY
First Place
George T. Wilkerson, “Court Kings and Flight Lessons”
Second Place
Alex Tretbar, “Now It Seems”
Third Place
Kevin Schaeffer, “In Response to Pascal’s Conjecture That All Human Unhappiness Stems From Not Knowing How to Remain Repose in a Room“
Honorable Mentions
Demetrius A. Buckley, “Letter from Daddy”
Sheryl L. Nelms, “The Blues”
EDWARD BUNKER PRIZE FICTION
First Place
Austin T. Holland, “White-Hot / Black-Hot”
Second Place
Alex Tretbar, “W”
Third Place
Nicholas Browning, “Solitude“
Honorable Mentions
Jeffery Young, “The Scarlet Statute”
David Webb, “No Change in Sight”
ESSAY
First Place
George T. Wilkerson, “Vacant Lots and Aviaries”
Second Place
Ibn Dawud Al-Ugtani, “Can I Interest You in a Story”
Third Place
William Myrl Smitherman, “Visitation”
MEMOIR
First Place
Jayson Hawkins, “Before the Virus”
Second Place
Heather Jarvis, “Frozen Pancakes and Bathrooms”
Third Place
Leo Paul Carmona, “Growing Pains”
Nonfiction Honorable Mentions
Steven Perez, “Mom’s Still Sick”
Juan Torres, “Untitled”
DRAMA
First Place
Kevin Schaeffer, “The Stairs”
Second Place
Leo Cardez, “At the Zoo: An Adaptation of Edward Albee’s Zoo Story”
Third Place
William Myrl Smitherman, “Sentenced to Life Without Music”
Honorable Mentions
Michael Harrison, “#seethegood”
Sean J. White, “The Contemplator”
FIELDING A. DAWSON
Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Poetry
Timothy Burke, “Memento Mori”
Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Fiction
Cassandra Model, “Silence”
Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Nonfiction
Paul S. Sedillo, “Cultural Time Roads”
Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Drama
Joaquin Madrigal, “How I Could Just Kill a Man“
The Prison Writing Contest Prizes are sponsored by the generous support of the Greenburger Center for Social & Criminal Justice.
We are thrilled to share that the newly named PEN America/Edward Bunker Prize in Fiction has been made possible by the legacy of Edward Bunker and the gift of his family.
