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
Joe Rickey Knight, “Midnight at the Manatee”
Second Place
Ezekiel Caligiuri, “People I Know”
Third Place
Jason Mobley, “Appeals from the Senseless”
Dawson Prize
Shadale L. Williams, “A Niggas’ Valedictory!”
Honorable Mentions
Kenneth Foster, “The Walls”
Bryan Palmer, “The Swing Set to Remember”
Sean White, “The Origins of Modern Sculpture”
FICTION
First Place
Robert Weaver, “Of Ash and Bone”
Second Place
William Van Poyck, “Death by Dominoes”
Third Place
Marcel Ramon Herrera, “LPs and Girlz”
Dawson Prize
Timothy Burke, “Appalachian Dragons, My Father, and Me”
Honorable Mentions
Richard Beebe, “Bigot Inn”
Martin Dawson, “The Golden Hour”
Christopher de Rossitte, “The Mostly Uneventful Life of Pierre Menard”
M.A. Mendoza, “The Fat Man”
ESSAY
First Place
Anthony Arteaga, “Solitary Confinement in California”
Second Place
Third Place
J. Michael Stanfield, Jr., “Murder is Murder”
Dawson Prize
James L. Karis, “On Doing Time”
Honorable Mentions
Larry Bratt, “Filling the Void”
Antonio Howard, “Tough Love”
Christian Weaver, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”
MEMOIR
First Place
Burl Corbett, “Painting the Sunset”
Second Place
Arthur Longworth, “The Chain”
Third Place
Christopher Myers, “Letter to My Grandnephew”
Honorable Mentions
Edward B. Lyon, Jr., “Right to Passage”
John Purugganan, “Death Without the Possibility of Parole”
John Ruzas, “Tragedy 2 Trial & Beyond”
Aly Tamboura, “Hell’s Chariot”
DRAMA
First Place
Second Place
Christopher Preshfield, “The High Desert Sessions”
Third Place
Dawson Prize
Dane Toomey, “Free to a Good Home”
Honorable Mentions
Christopher Myers, “A Boy Named Water”
William D. Stubblefield, “Moving On”
Robert Weaver, “The Recovery Canticle”