The PEN Prison Writing Awards was initiated in the wake of the 1971 Attica Prison Riots as the founding program for the Prison and Justice Writing Program at PEN America. Each year, the program invites writers in carceral facilities across the United States to submit unpublished work in the genre categories of Poetry, Fiction, Essay, Memoir, and Drama (Playwriting/Screenwriting).
Winners in each genre category are awarded cash prizes of $300, $200, $150, and $75 for First Place, Second Place, Third Place, and Honorable Mention, respectively. Winning entries are also published in the annual PEN Prison Writing Awards Anthology, and award recipients are invited to develop their writing as part of the PEN Prison Writing Mentorship Program. All winners will be recognized at the annual Break Out celebration in December, where selections from the recently published anthology will be performed by renowned writers, actors, artists, and activists.
Read winners from past years by visiting our archive.
With special thanks to our Prison Writing Committee, who spends hours intimately involved with the thousands of submitted works to curate these incredible pieces.
The Anthology
Thank the Bloom: 2023 PEN Prison Writing Awards Anthology is a testament to the power of this kind of community collaboration. Inspired by past lovers, current partnerships, old family dynamics, and steadfast friendships that both transcend prison walls and persevere within them, this anthology illuminates the ways in which art cannot survive without community care at its core. Using poetry, memoir, essay, fiction, and drama as their mediums, the writers featured in this anthology fight to create means of connection. And yet these themes defy genre, turning this anthology into something else entirely: a deeper exploration of self, of power, of institutionalized racism, of systemic isolation, and of the beauty that can be found in a garden bed.
Past Anthologies
Submission Guidelines
Entries are accepted from adults incarcerated in a federal or state prison, county jail, or other detention center. Submissions postmarked after December 31 will be considered for the following year’s awards. Due to the volume of submissions, PEN America is unable to return submitted manuscripts. Authors retain all rights to their work upon publication.
- Only unpublished work is eligible for consideration. Work published anywhere online is ineligible.
- Manuscripts should be typewritten and double-spaced (except for poetry) whenever possible, or legibly handwritten on 8.5-by-11-inch paper.
- Include a title and genre category on the first page of each individual submission (not only the cover letter) to ensure the submission is judged correctly. Internal reviewers will assign genre categories for all unmarked submissions.
- All submissions should be accompanied by a brief cover letter that includes your name, address, identification number, the genre(s) you are submitting to, and the title(s) of your piece(s).
- Authors may not submit more than one entry in each category, except in poetry, which has a 20-page limit. If you are submitting to drama, fiction, or nonfiction, the maximum page number per submission is 25. Reviewers are not required to read beyond these page limits.
- Complete novels or memoirs are not allowed. Please send a short excerpt of no more than 25 pages. The excerpt you choose should be what you consider to be the best reflection of your work.
- If possible, please send copies of your work, not the originals. PEN America is unable to return manuscripts after submission.
- Any topic that moves you is fit for our contest, and no entries will be disqualified based on content. Any subject matter will be considered.
Deadline:
Submissions must be postmarked between August 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024. Submissions received after the due date will be considered for the next award cycle.
Submit by sending work to:
PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Program
ATTN: PEN Prison Writing Awards
120 Broadway
26th Floor North
New York, NY 10271