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
ER Hayson, “An Ordinary Prison”
Second Place
Andrew Jaicks, “UN Plaza”
Third Place
Patricia Prewitt, “About the Family Down the Road”
Dawson Prize
Moneke Danyell Moody, “A Race Against Time”
Honorable Mentions
Christopher Griffin, “Cultivation”
Brian Maddock, “Echoes”
Charles Norman, “Apple Seeds”
FICTION
First Place
Thomas Whitaker, “Manufacturing Anomie”
Second Place
Matt Mendoza, “The Music of Lucas Darnish”
Third Place
Samantha Enid Abeyllez, “Betrayal-Past-Tony”
Dawson Prize
Honorable Mentions
Edward Ji, “Escape from Shanghai”
Jason Sorden, “Codominant”
Christopher Myers, “When There Were No Stories”
Maurice Ward, “Death of a Black Youth”
ESSAY
First Place
Thomas Whitaker, “A Nothing Would Do as Well”
Second Place
Christopher Dankovich, “Come Break Me Down”
Third Place
Denis Martinez, “The 72-Hour Trial”
Dawson Prize
Lina Michael, “A Woman Locked in a Warehouse”
Honorable Mentions
Michael Lambix, “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend”
Christopher Myers, “Journal Entry 8-6-13″
Kenton Warnock, “Jailhouse Conversations”
MEMOIR
First Place
Steve Bartholomew, “Son of the District”
Second Place
Charles Norman, “Lessons in Love and Loss”
Third Place
Gene Walker, “Feast Beneath the Cottonwood Tree”
Honorable Mentions
Gordon L. Bruce, “The Golden Minute”
Aaron Kindall, “Days of Gray”
Tom Miller, “Cotton Patch Kid”
DrAMA
First Place
Mylrell Miner, “Desert World”
Second Place
Sean White, “Prometheus: A Due Process Comedy”
Third Place
Dawson Prize
Christopher Myers, “Eye of the Mamoth”
Honorable Mentions
Steven R. Bond, “Falling Apples”
Tracy Lee Kendall, “Vigil”
Andrew Philips, “Brick by Brick”