Jess Abolafia

Jess Abolafia is an educator, writer, and abolitionist whose work is grounded in amplifying the stories and experiences of those impacted by the prison-industrial complex in the United States. Abolafia is the Coordinator for the PEN Prison Writing Mentorship Program at PEN America, and has instructed a memoir-writing workshop at the only women’s maximum-security prison in New Jersey. Abolafia is also working closely with system-impacted individuals on several book projects, including editing the memoir of an incarcerated woman sentenced to life in prison as a teenager, and editing an anthology of paintings, drawings, and poems of an artist who found freedom through his artwork during nearly four decades of incarceration, including eight years on Death Row.  Abolafia has served on the Advisory Committee for “Behind These Walls: Reckoning With Incarceration,” an exhibit at the James A. Michener Art Museum, which formerly operated as a carceral facility. Abolafia graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English and African-American Studies from The College of New Jersey, where she also received an MA in English.