For over five decades, thousands of writers across the United States have submitted poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic works to PEN America’s PEN Prison Writing Awards, one of the few outlets of free expression for writers working from prisons. Since 2018, the winners of these awards have been published in an annual anthology series documenting the fierce talent and innovative craft of this ever-growing community of writers.

Anthologies are produced and sold via Amazon, one of the few vendors allowed to send books into prisons, aside from publishers. Sale of the anthology benefits PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program.