Jess Abolafia

Coordinator, Prison and Justice Writing Mentorship Program

Jess Abolafia is the coordinator for the Prison and Justice Writing Mentorship Program at PEN America. She 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. Abolafia has instructed a writing-workshop at the only women’s maximum-security prison in New Jersey, empowering incarcerated women to use writing as a tool of healing and liberation. She is also working on several book projects with system-impacted individuals, including co-editing the memoir of an incarcerated woman sentenced to life in prison as a teenager, and compiling the 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.


Articles by Jess Abolafia

Friday August 18

Unsealed: On That Old Rock Pile Prison Quilt Project

In this essay, Jeff Elmore explains his process of making paper collage quilts in prison, which he sends to anyone interested in receiving them.

Tuesday May 30

Unsealed: An Open Letter from No More Victims Road

Of the hundreds of addresses I come across on the envelopes from incarcerated people around the country, there is one street name in particular that has never left my mind:…

Friday April 21

Tommy Trantino on Perseverance and Protest

Jess Abolafia introduces Tommy Trantino, author of “Lock the Lock” (1974), who speaks with the Works of Justice podcast about his experience writing and making art on death row.