Sterling Cunio is a spoken word poet who transforms adversity into the substance of stanza. Sterling is a 2019-2020 PEN America Writing For Justice Fellow, a 2019 Oregon Literary Arts Fellow and a two-time PEN America Prison Writing Award winner for his essay Going Forward with Gus (2018) and co-authored play The Bucket (2018). Published in The Marshall Project, Sterling’s currently a University of Oregon undergrad majoring in crime, law and society. At age 16, Sterling was sentenced to life without parole and has spent twenty-six years in prison where he’s devoted himself to hospice volunteering, mentoring younger prisoners, transforming the culture of street crime and building peace. Sterling is a frequent contributor to community-based efforts to raise awareness around issues of mass incarceration, food scarcity, and Restorative Justice.
Sterling Cunio
Articles by Sterling Cunio
Monday August 6
The Bucket
“Nine by six cell and small as hell. Not big. I can barely do the James Brown in here, I can bang my head against four walls in four seconds.”
Monday August 6
Going Forward with Gus
“As Gus would speak about the love for his kids and the things he wished he had done better, I thought about what it would have been like to have a loving father—or any father.”