Established in the aftermath of the Attica Prison Riots in the mid-1970s, the PEN Prison Writing Awards recognize the exceptional voices of incarcerated writers in the United States working within the genres of poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, and drama. With the help of the PEN America Prison Writing Committee, prizes of $250, $150, $100, and $25 are awarded for first place, second place, third place and honorable mentions in each genre. Winners were also recognized in two special award categories: the Bell Chevigny Award in Women’s Nonfiction, and the Fielding A. Dawson Award in honor of promising works. Both special awards are named in commemoration of former committee members.
The winning entries are published in an anthology which can be ordered here. Previous anthologies of work honored by the PEN Prison Writing Awards can be purchased here.
POETRY
First Place
Erik Tschekunow, “This Call Is from an Inmate at a Federal Prison (‘They say you eventually get desperate’)”
Second Place
B. Batchelor, “The Self as an Unlit Wick in Bed ”
Third Place
Matthew A. Stoy, “Keepers”
Honorable Mentions
Joel Davis, “Mythos”
Fausto Cabrebra, “Not Pictured”
Robert McCracken, “Where I Come From”
FICTION
First Place
Ellis Acton Currer, “In The Cemetery Where My Sins Are Buried”
Second Place
Crystal Avilla, “Things that go Thump in the Night”
Third Place
Peter Dunne, “The Visit”
Honorable Mentions
Fernando Rivas, “Contraband”
Matthew Mendoza, “Hinges & Runners”
ESSAY
First Place
Tomas Keen, “What Really Complicates Writing About Prison”
Second Place
Paul Brown, “Do Not Resuscitate”
Third Place
Mario Castro, “Tell Me Why It Doesn’t End”
Honorable Mentions
Brian Beals with Peter Sanders, “An Insider’s Perspective of the IDOC’s Creation and Its Fundamental Failings”
Emilio Fernandez, “Anatomy of a Cell: Four Ways”
Franklin Lee, “Continuously Dumbfounded Confused…and Repeat…and Repeat…My CDCR COVID, Experience Round 2″
MEMOIR
First Place
Kevin Schaeffer, “Songs for the Dead”
Second Place
Marina Bueno, “The Things I’ve Learned in Prison”
Third Place
Wes Lee/Bryon Petitt, “Maybe Tomorrow”
Honorable Mentions
Andrew Suh, “Prison Dad”
Geneva Phillips, “Holding”
Anthony Rhodd, “The Dream of Fields”
DRAMA
First Place
Toussaint Daniels, “The Story of Violence”
Second Place
David E. Babb, “I’m Nobody”
Third Place
Joshua Peterson, “An Infernal Internal Dialogue”
Honorable Mentions
Kevin Potts, “Be Patient with Me”
Burl N. Corbett, “Riding the Thumb, With Angels”
SPECIAL AWARDS
Bell Chevigny Award in Women’s Nonfiction
Catherine La Fleur, “Denouement”
Fielding A. Dawson Award in Poetry
Kenneth Meyers, “I Vaguely Recall What Flowers Are For”
Fielding A. Dawson Award in Fiction
Aaron Hill, “Guilt”
Fielding A. Dawson Award in Nonfiction
Dontez Daniels, “Why My Black Life Don’t Matter”
Fielding A. Dawson Award in Drama
Rashuan Black, “The Bogeyman”
