Every year, hundreds of imprisoned writers from around the country submit poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic works to PEN America’s Prison Writing Contest, one of the few outlets of free expression for the country’s incarcerated population. Manuscripts come to the Prison Writing Program in a variety of forms: Some are handwritten, some are typed, some are written in the margins of legal documents. Prizes of $250, $150, $100, $50, and $25 are awarded for first, second, third place, the Dawson Prize, and honorable mentions, respectively, in each of the following categories:

POETRY

First Place

Steven Bulleit, Doing Time”

Second Place

John Yarbrough, Knowing a Place”

Third Place

Yvette M. Louisell, Fried Mushrooms”

Dawson Prize

Jah Chemistry, Days of Our Lives”

 

Honorable Mentions

Billy Neblett, Amos Fuller Doesn’t Speak”

Arvan Washington III, An Indeterminate SHU”

Forest Clayton, “The Fan”

 

FICTION

First Place

Clifford Barnes, Confessions of a Jack-Off Artist”

Second Place

Gail Leonard, Kitchen Workers”

Third Place

Michael McLean, The Seventh Sense”

Dawson Prize

Justin Montgomery, Static Night”

 

Honorable Mentions

Zachary Redfearne, Release Date”

Charles Huckelbury, Gumbo”

Kenneth Brydon, San Quentin, July 4th, 1975″

 

MEMOIR

First Place

Christina MacNaughton, Just Another Death”

Second Place

Joe Huffman, Day One”

Third Place

Thomas M. Fox, A Family’s Ties”

 

Honorable Mentions

Malachi Ephraim, Summer Snow”

George Hughes, Fair Well”

Melvin William Joseph Vogt, Life and Times of Melvin Billy Joe Vogt”

 

ESSAY

First Place

J.E. Wantz, Feeling(s) Cheated”

Second Place

William Steed Kelley, The Seeds of Jasper Hate”

Third Place

Jorge A. Renaud, Convicts and Communities”

Dawson Prize

Lisa Heaivilin, Ms. Body”

 

Honorable Mentions

Clifford Barnes, To Be Beaten On Your Birthday Means You’re Loved”

Alejo Rodriguez, Paralegal Training for the Formerly Incarcerated”

Eugene Alexander Dey, A Requiem for Freddy”

 

DRAMA

First Place

Keith Sanders, A Time to Forget”

Second Place

Eugene Williams, Turds”

Third Place

Clifford Barnes, Hiding Franz Fanon”

Dawson Prize

Gary Salinas, Deadly Innocence”

 

Honorable Mentions

Daniel Harris, Time Cut for Willy”

Charles W. Angell II, Horizon’s Edge”

John “Divine G” Whitfield, Absolver of Sing Sing”