Visiting the Blues book cover

Every year, hundreds of writers in prisons around the country submit works to PEN America’s Prison Writing Contest. This year’s submissions spoke to the resilience, individuality, and indomitable artistry of writers inside prison walls. While we celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s winners, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the devastating aftermath of the pandemic’s second year, which saw the eruption of carceral facilities as viral hotspots, empty promises of decarceration, and vast disparities in prison health care. In a time of acute disaster, this contest presents writers, poets, and playwrights with a conduit for their experiences, imagination, and indispensable literary voices. S

With special thanks to our Prison Writing Committee, who spent hours intimately involved with the thousands of submitted works to curate these incredible pieces. These pieces will be publicly available on our website, and are also included in our 2021 print anthology, Visiting the Blues.

 

PEN AMERICA

2021 PRISON WRITING AWARD WINNERS

POETRY

First Place

George T. Wilkerson, “Court Kings and Flight Lessons”

Second Place

Alex Tretbar, “Now It Seems”

Third Place

Kevin Schaeffer, “In Response to Pascal’s Conjecture That All Human Unhappiness Stems From Not Knowing How to Remain Repose in a Room“

 

Honorable Mentions

Demetrius A. Buckley, “Letter from Daddy”

Sheryl L. Nelms, “The Blues”

 

EDWARD BUNKER PRIZE FICTION

First Place

Austin T. Holland, “White-Hot / Black-Hot”

Second Place

Alex Tretbar, “W”

Third Place

Nicholas Browning, “Solitude“

 

Honorable Mentions

Jeffery Young, “The Scarlet Statute”

David Webb, “No Change in Sight”

 

ESSAY

First Place

George T. Wilkerson, “Vacant Lots and Aviaries”

Second Place

Ibn Dawud Al-Ugtani, “Can I Interest You in a Story”

Third Place

William Myrl Smitherman, “Visitation”

 

MEMOIR

First Place

Jayson Hawkins, “Before the Virus”

Second Place

Heather Jarvis, “Frozen Pancakes and Bathrooms”

Third Place

Leo Paul Carmona, “Growing Pains”

 

Nonfiction Honorable Mentions

Steven Perez, “Mom’s Still Sick”

Juan Torres, “Untitled”

 

DRAMA

First Place

Kevin Schaeffer, “The Stairs”

Second Place

Leo Cardez, “At the Zoo: An Adaptation of Edward Albee’s Zoo Story”

Third Place

William Myrl Smitherman, “Sentenced to Life Without Music”

 

Honorable Mentions

Michael Harrison, “#seethegood”

Sean J. White, “The Contemplator”

 

FIELDING A. DAWSON

Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Poetry

Timothy Burke, “Memento Mori”

Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Fiction

Cassandra Model, “Silence”

Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Nonfiction

Paul S. Sedillo, “Cultural Time Roads”

Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Drama

Joaquin Madrigal, “How I Could Just Kill a Man“

The Prison Writing Contest Prizes are sponsored by the generous support of the Greenburger Center for Social & Criminal Justice.

We are thrilled to share that the newly named PEN America/Edward Bunker Prize in Fiction has been made possible by the legacy of Edward Bunker and the gift of his family.