Benjamin Frandsen

Benjamin Frandsen’s parents raised him to believe in the primal power of words—those magical keys that unlock the beauty of life, pain, and love. He’s written over 50 poems, 15 songs, four screenplays (one a work-for-hire), and is midway through completing his first novel. He first learned of PEN America when his mother won the 2005 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship for her narrative nonfiction partial manuscript Some Mother’s Darling. Before she succumbed to cancer in 2013, she made him vow to finish her book, a promise he recently fulfilled. Being chosen for an honorable mention in the 2019 PEN America Prison Writing Contest was a double privilege because he joined his beloved mother in the ranks of scribes who have been honored by PEN America.