Every year, hundreds of writers in prisons around the country submit works to PEN America’s Prison Writing Contest. This year’s submissions spoke to the resilience, individuality, and indomitable artistry of writers inside prison walls. While we celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s winners, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the devastating aftermath of the pandemic’s second year, which saw the eruption of carceral facilities as viral hotspots, empty promises of decarceration, and vast disparities in prison health care. In a time of acute disaster, this contest presents writers, poets, and playwrights with a conduit for their experiences, imagination, and indispensable literary voices.

With special thanks to our Prison Writing Committee, who spent hours intimately involved with the thousands of submitted works to curate these incredible pieces. These pieces will be publicly available on our website, and are also included in our 2022 Prison Writing Contest Anthology.

 

PEN AMERICA

2022 PRISON WRITING AWARD WINNERS

POETRY

First Place

Alex Tretbar – “Variations on an Undisclosed Location”

Second Place

C. Fausto Cabrera – “When Kneaded”

Third Place

Fernando Rivas – “Inquiry“

 

Honorable Mentions

Davi Gray – “Lightning Rods”

Jason Centrone – “Without You Silhouetted”

John Corley – “First Night“

 

FICTION

First Place

Frank Kensaku Saragosa – “Life. In Pieces”

Second Place

Rahsaan “New York” Thomas – “Silent Treatment”

Third Place

Ryan M. Moser – “The Reinvention of Lenny Primo“

 

Honorable Mentions

Wintersun Lemieux – “A Fable for Leann”

Thomas Bartlett Whitaker – “Release”

Kevin Schaeffer – “Word of the Day: Bifurcation“

 

ESSAY

First Place

Frank Kensaku Saragosa – “Caught Crossing, Caught Between – A Tale of Two Cities”

Second Place

Joseph Grosso – “Now This Is Man”

Third Place

Lyle C. May – “Y’all Aint Here To Be Rehabilitated”

 

Honorable Mention

Reginald Stephens – “From the Sidelines“

Paul M. Wach – “I Work as a Lead Man“

Daniel Pirkel – “The Unintended Consequences of Retributive Justice“

 

MEMOIR

First Place

Burl N. Corbett – “Another Rainy Day”

Second Place

Leo Cardez – “Convict Chronicles: Cooking”

Third Place

Geneva Phillips – “The Hard Part”

 

Honorable Mentions

Elizabeth Hawes – “Pain Management”

John Adams – “Hating Daddy”

Tsunami Caryl-Averlyn – “Co-Ed“

 

DRAMA

First Place

Alex Friedmann – “Twenty Years In Solitary – A Play in 20 Acts“

Second Place

Brandon J. Amos – “Can’t Win PEN”

Third Place

Evan Drennan – “Chasing the Apex”

 

Honorable Mentions

Burl N. Corbett – “Officer Sam Doesn’t Work Here, Anymore”

Walter Sam – “Horrible Brothers”

Gary K. Farlow – “A Homeless History Lesson“

 

FIELDING A. DAWSON

Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Poetry

Chad H. Rand – “Litany in Pairs”

Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Fiction

Julian Blanchard – “The Intern”

Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Memoir

Steven Reynaldo Perez – “A Texas Prisoner Remembers”

Fielding A. Dawson Prize in Drama

Sean White – “T-Minus“