Blog
Filter By:
Advocacy • Analysis • Blog • Commentary • Drama • Essay • Event • Feature • Fiction • Graphic Narrative • Interview • Memoir • News • Obituary • Open Letter • Poetry • Press Release • Profile
Browse By Series:
PEN Poetry Series • Prison Writing • The PEN Ten Interviews • Illustrated PEN • Pen Pals • The PEN World
Browse By Email Subscription:
PEN America News • Educational Censorship News • Works of Justice
The Glass House
Loud-ass motherfucker was sitting on the upper tier watching the game. It was on the Sports T.V. (the Black T.V.), which with the General Viewing (White) T.V. and the… More
Nowhere but Barstow and Prison
My mom and dad tried fifteen times to have a girl baby, but ended up with fifteen boys. We lived in a back house, just off Crooks Street, close… More
The Double Edge
The Double EdgeThere is no shame in not surviving.Even as the blood is let outhonor and grace enter the vein.All heroes die for credibility.As for being a saint, Miguelo,it… More
Prison Walls
The light don’t shine for every in Prison by these steel beds. My heart is rock solid as concrete. I cry steel tear on the cloud day nothing… More
Prison Eulogies
Prison EulogiesThe ones who diednever mattered muchexcept in herewhere the stories never endbecause they’re too realMichellewho beat her girluntil she got outand got her own selfkilledStellawho laughed & laugheduntil… More
Check Out Day
There’s always a way out of prison, any prison, and it can be done right now, today. The authorities can’t stop you. Well, they can slow you down if… More
The Season
The lawn’s a frigid jigsaw puzzle of frozen brown grass Shut in for winter I sip your best scotch Your car is listed for sale in the auto shopper There’s no tree… More
Frontline Reflections of a Drug War Journalist
My mouth is dry. I’ve been breathing open-mouthed, out of control. Once the rush of adrenaline subsides, my pulse will return to normal and my mouth will moisten again.A… More
An Escape Artist
At eight, I was a magicianable to slip from any confinement.After my stepfather beat meand imprisoned me in my bedroom,I decided to disappear,sneaking into the passagewaybetween the left brain… More