Burl N. Corbett was born 6/9/47 in Reading: PA. Raised on a farm only three crow miles away from John Updike’s adolescent country home immortalized in “Pigeon Feathers.” Graduated high school in 1965, then ran away in 1966 to join the beatniks in Greenwich Village, only to find that scene supplanted by the hippies. Lived among the counterculture in New York and Haight-Ashbury until 1968, when I returned disillusioned to PA. Got married, raised four children, began writing, got divorced, and came to prison at the age of 60 with no criminal record other than a 24-year-old DUI for the “crime” of self-defense in my own home without the financial means to hire an experienced lawyer. Presently, as I continue to appeal, I am serving life without parole.
Winner, 2022 PEN America Prison Writing Contest – 1st place in Nonfiction Memoir for “Another Rainy Day“
2022 PEN America Prison Writing Contest – Honorable Mention in Drama for “Officer Sam Doesn’t Work Here, Anymore“