PEN America
Donate Now
  • Issues & Advocacy
    • Book Bans
    • Educational Censorship
    • Campus Free Speech
    • Disinformation
    • Online Abuse
    • Writers at Risk
    • Artists at Risk Connection (ARC)
    • Global Advocacy
    • NYC Literary Action Coalition
    • Next Gen PEN
  • Writers & Readers
    • Literary Awards
    • Grants & Fellowships
    • PEN Across America
    • Prison and Justice Writing
    • Workshops & Trainings
    • Writers in the Schools Committee
    • Children’s and YA Books Committee
    • Translation Committee
  • Festival & Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Event Series
    • 2023 PEN America Literary Gala
    • 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony
    • 2022 PEN World Voices Festival
    • Authors’ Evenings
  • Read The Latest
    • Research & Reports
    • Take Action
    • #FreeTheBooks
    • Press Releases
    • Interviews & Features
    • PEN America Publications
  • Membership
  • About
    • PEN America at 100
    • About Us
    • PEN America Racial Equity Statement
    • Leadership and Staff
    • Trustees
    • Careers
    • Digital Archives
  • Give
    • Donate Now
    • Become a PEN America Young Patron
    • More Ways to Give
    • Shop
PEN America
Donate Now
  • Advocacy
    & Action
  • Writers
    & Readers
  • Festivals
    & Events
  • Issues & Advocacy
    • Book Bans
    • Educational Censorship
    • Campus Free Speech
    • Disinformation
    • Online Abuse
    • Writers at Risk
    • Artists at Risk Connection (ARC)
    • Global Advocacy
    • NYC Literary Action Coalition
    • Next Gen PEN
  • Writers & Readers
    • Literary Awards
    • Grants & Fellowships
    • PEN Across America
    • Prison and Justice Writing
    • Workshops & Trainings
    • Writers in the Schools Committee
    • Children’s and YA Books Committee
    • Translation Committee
  • Festival & Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Event Series
    • 2023 PEN America Literary Gala
    • 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony
    • 2022 PEN World Voices Festival
    • Authors’ Evenings
  • Read The Latest
    • Research & Reports
    • Take Action
    • #FreeTheBooks
    • Press Releases
    • Interviews & Features
    • PEN America Publications
  • Membership
  • About
    • PEN America at 100
    • About Us
    • PEN America Racial Equity Statement
    • Leadership and Staff
    • Trustees
    • Careers
    • Digital Archives
  • Give
    • Donate Now
    • Become a PEN America Young Patron
    • More Ways to Give
    • Shop
  • Home

Unsealed: The Blood and Ink of the Prison Pen

Blog
By: Leo Cardez, Jess Abolafia | March 16, 2023

Leo Cardez reflects on the limited resources available to incarcerated writers by explaining what it's like to use a "prison pen." More

On Bridgeworks Oregon’s “Prisons Have a Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon’s Oldest Prison”

Blog
By: Moira Marquis | March 16, 2023

Moira Marquis reviews Tracy D. Schlapp and Danny Wilson's "Prisons Have a Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon's Oldest Prison" (Bridgeworks Oregon, 2022). More

Where It Hurts: How Book Bans Restrict Access to Healthcare

Blog
By: Kwaneta Harris | March 16, 2023

Kwaneta Harris explains how book bans restrict people who are incarcerated from learning about their reproductive health and other areas of healthcare. More

Educational Censorship Continues: The 2023 Legislative Sessions So Far

Blog
By: Jonathan Friedman, Jeffrey Sachs, Jeremy C. Young, Samantha LaFrance | February 16, 2023

The early returns from the 2023 legislative sessions suggest that lawmakers’ fervor to censor and ban content from educational institutions has not abated. Far from it. More

The Speaking Archive: Words from the House of the Dead

Blog
By: Valentina Flores | February 16, 2023

Valentina Flores finds a 1971 anthology by incarcerated writers at Interference Archive, a community-based organization in Brooklyn, New York City. More

What’s Mildred Taylor Got to Do With It?: Race, Prison Book Bans, and the Power in Storytelling

Blog
By: Moira Marquis | February 16, 2023

In this essay on prison book bans, Moira Marquis uses "The 1619 Project" to explain how limiting access to Black history and culture is deleterious to people who are… More

Introducing “Unsealed:” Inside the Letters of PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program

Blog
By: Jess Abolafia | February 16, 2023

Jess Abolafia on the challenges of communication through prison walls via physical, handwritten mail. More

Black and white photograph of Celes Tisdale next to a cover his book "When the Smoke Cleared" on a yellow backdrop

Remember This: On Celes Tisdale’s “When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journal”

Blog
By: Malcolm Tariq | November 17, 2022

Malcolm Tariq reviews Celes Tisdale's "When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journal" (Duke University Press, 2022). More

Character Development: A National Novel Writing Month Pep Talk

BlogOctober 19, 2022

Writer William Myrl Smitherman writes a pep talk for incarcerated writers for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). More

On Pressing the Bounds of What’s Possible: A Conversation with Emile DeWeaver

Blog
By: Charley Burlock | October 19, 2022

PEN America Prison and Justice Writing intern Charley Burlock interviews writer Emile DeWeaver. More

Posts navigation

1 2 3 … 17 next

Join PEN America Today

Defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture.

Subscribe

Get updates on events, literary awards, free expression issues, and global news.

 
 
  • What's New
PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression This Week
PEN America/PEN International: Chinese Authorities Should Immediately Release Blogger Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison
PEN America, With Other Free Speech Organizations, Sends Letter to Congress Opposing Proposed National TikTok Ban
Letter to Congress Opposing Federal Law to Impose a Ban on TikTok

Alert Us

Are you an artist at risk or know someone who is?

PEN America On  

penamerica PEN America @penamerica ·
58m

#ChildrensBooks

Reply on Twitter 1639415137902686214 Retweet on Twitter 1639415137902686214 1 Like on Twitter 1639415137902686214 1 Twitter 1639415137902686214
penamerica PEN America @penamerica ·
3h

“#FirstAmendment rights do not stop at the schoolhouse door,” PEN America’s Nadine Farid Johnson reminds
@JudiciaryGOP, highlighting the need to prepare students for "life in a participatory democracy, one that requires us to debate, to understand & to discuss." #StudentsRights

Reply on Twitter 1639377086744780800 Retweet on Twitter 1639377086744780800 13 Like on Twitter 1639377086744780800 25 Twitter 1639377086744780800
Retweet on Twitter PEN America Retweeted
bradymallorytv Brady Mallory @bradymallorytv ·
4h

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://twitter.com/penamerica/status/1638629780592513024

Reply on Twitter 1639375335140605953 Retweet on Twitter 1639375335140605953 4 Like on Twitter 1639375335140605953 17 Twitter 1639375335140605953
PEN America
588 Broadway, Suite 303
New York, NY 10012
T (212) 334-1660 F (212) 334-2181
PEN America Los Angeles
1370 N. St Andrews Place
Los Angeles, CA 90028
T (323) 424-4939
PEN America Washington, D.C.
1100 13th Street NW, Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20005
Donate Today
 
Copyright © 2023 PEN America. All rights reserved.   |   Privacy Policy