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

Gene Walker“Longevity”

Second Place

Julia Iskowitz“Untitled”

Third Place

Brian Maddock“Knotty Dreams”

Dawson Prize

Mike Owens, “Black Settlement Photo: Circa 1867”

 

Honorable Mentions

Henry Daniels III“Appraisal” 

Jim DeShazo“Play”

Harlan Richards“Forgiven”

 

Fiction

First Place

Robert Weaver“The Blessing of Jebidiah Goodytake”

Second Place

Lynne Agnew“Sabrina”

Third Place

Jonathan C. Rosenbloom“Chatat”

Dawson Prize

Cary Lynn Nichols“Silent Chatter”

 

Honorable Mentions

Thomas M. Fox“Monster in the Playground”

Dane Toomey“Apple Jelly”

Christopher Zoukis“Jesusland”

 

Memoir

First Place

D. Ka Lani Raposa“A Fine, Fine Day”

Second Place

Christi Buchanan“The Ring”

Third Place

Yvette M. Louisell, “How to Survive in Prison”

Dawson Prize

A.C. Bellard“Walk Like a Man”

 

Honorable Mentions

Rogelio Gutierrez“Judgment Walk”

Jose L. Di Lenola“The Years In Between”

Josh Tanaka“To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question”

 

Essay

First Place

Thomas Bartlett Whitaker“Hell’s Kitchen”

Second Place

Joseph Dole“Juvenile Adults”

Third Place

Robin Ledbetter“Laying Roots”

 

Honorable Mentions

Richard Allen Appleby“I Hear the Train Comin…”

Lee Charles Daniels“Criminal Injustice”

Charles P. Norman“That’s the Way It Is in Prison”

 

Drama

First Place

Robert Weaver, “The Secret of Sky, Act 3″

Second Place

Christopher Zoukis, Healing Bin Laden”

Third Place

Loren Ivory Morgan“Midnight Phantom (Part III): Lilith Anacrusis or The Vampire”

Dawson Prize

Christopher Myers, Sophocles in LA”

 

Honorable Mentions

Joseph Allen, Jr., “A Whimsy of Insanity”

Bill Huffstutter, “Painted Little Lady”

Keith Sanders, Getting Around to It”