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
Second Place
John Yarbrough, “Knowing a Place”
Third Place
Yvette M. Louisell, “Fried Mushrooms”
Dawson Prize
Jah Chemistry, “Days of Our Lives”
Honorable Mentions
Billy Neblett, “Amos Fuller Doesn’t Speak”
Arvan Washington III, “An Indeterminate SHU”
Forest Clayton, “The Fan”
FICTION
First Place
Clifford Barnes, “Confessions of a Jack-Off Artist”
Second Place
Gail Leonard, “Kitchen Workers”
Third Place
Michael McLean, “The Seventh Sense”
Dawson Prize
Justin Montgomery, “Static Night”
Honorable Mentions
Zachary Redfearne, “Release Date”
Kenneth Brydon, “San Quentin, July 4th, 1975″
MEMOIR
First Place
Christina MacNaughton, “Just Another Death”
Second Place
Joe Huffman, “Day One”
Third Place
Thomas M. Fox, “A Family’s Ties”
Honorable Mentions
Malachi Ephraim, “Summer Snow”
Melvin William Joseph Vogt, “Life and Times of Melvin Billy Joe Vogt”
ESSAY
First Place
J.E. Wantz, “Feeling(s) Cheated”
Second Place
William Steed Kelley, “The Seeds of Jasper Hate”
Third Place
Jorge A. Renaud, “Convicts and Communities”
Dawson Prize
Lisa Heaivilin, “Ms. Body”
Honorable Mentions
Clifford Barnes, “To Be Beaten On Your Birthday Means You’re Loved”
Alejo Rodriguez, “Paralegal Training for the Formerly Incarcerated”
Eugene Alexander Dey, “A Requiem for Freddy”
DRAMA
First Place
Keith Sanders, “A Time to Forget”
Second Place
Third Place
Clifford Barnes, “Hiding Franz Fanon”
Dawson Prize
Gary Salinas, “Deadly Innocence”
Honorable Mentions
Daniel Harris, “Time Cut for Willy”
Charles W. Angell II, “Horizon’s Edge”