Prison and Justice Writing
For more than five decades, PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing program has amplified the work of thousands of writers who are creating while incarcerated in the United States. By providing resources, mentorship, and audiences outside the walls, we help these writers to join and enrich the broader literary community. Committed to the freedom to write in U.S. prisons as a critical free expression issue of our time, we leverage the transformative possibilities of writing to raise public consciousness about the societal implications of mass incarceration and support the development of justice-involved literary talent.
Connecting With Incarcerated Writers
Research
Our 2023 report, Reading Between the Bars, shines a light on the realities of prison censorship and challenges its normalization, legally and culturally. We offer several recommendations for challenging carceral censorship at the state and federal levels.
PEN America’s benchmark 2019 briefer on carceral censorship, Literature Locked Up details the types of book bans prisoners face, the arbitrariness with which they are implemented, and the lack of transparency and oversight that leads to bans.
Publications
PEN America’s The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison provides a road map for incarcerated people and their allies to have a thriving writing life behind bars—and shared beyond the walls—that draws on the unique insights of more than fifty contributors, most themselves justice-involved, to offer advice, inspiration and resources.
Each year, PEN America produces an incredible collection of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama written by talented writers in prison. Included in each anthology are original groundbreaking illustrations by artists both with and without justice involvement.
Works of Justice
Works of Justice is a monthly newsletter, blog series and podcast series from PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program that spotlights key figures, writers, and artists who are critically reshaping the conversation on mass incarceration, advocacy, and justice in the United States.
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The Book of Judith: Honoring Judith Tannenbaum (1947-2019)
PEN America’s Works of Justice series features four selections from “The Book of Judith: Opening Hearts Through Poetry,” an anthology…
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C. Fausto Cabrera and Zeke Caligiuri on Precarity and Critical Resistance
C. Fausto Cabrera and Zeke Caligiuri speak with PEN America’s “Works of Justice” podcast about bringing writing programs into Minnesota…
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Michigan & Me
In this Works of Justice feature, Curtis Dawkins reflects on how he wrote his debut collection of stories, The Graybar…
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Recent Books on Justice and Incarceration
PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program features ten recently published books on justice and incarceration in the United States.
Take Action in Observance of Prison Banned Book Week
Prisons are the largest censors in the United States. Single state prison systems censor more books than all schools and libraries combined.
Meet the Team
Contact Us
For questions related to our programming areas and resources, please reach out to [email protected].