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
Jack Vian, “I Shake the Sand from My Boots”
Second Place
Malcolm King, “Prisoner”
Third Place
John Byron Yarborough, “Dog Flips Burgers”
Dawson Prize
Joe R. Knight, “In the Infirmary and Outside the Kentucky State Penitentiary”
Honorable Mentions
Gary Hicks, “Banana”
Scott Walt, “Untitled”
FICTION
First Place
Gary Don Parks, “All Heaven’s Lights“
Second Place
Mark Smith, “The Last Run”
Third Place
Mario Vincent Perez, “Walls”
Dawson Prize
William Tyler III, “Man, The Island”
Honorable Mentions
William Perryman, “At Odds With Nature”
Paul Moran, “The Beast of Soledad Prison”
Joshua Hill (posthumous), “Champeen of the World”
MEMOIR
First Place
Micheal Ray Benét, “The Seeds”
Second Place
G. T. Carillo, “In Good Company”
Third Place
Jorge Antonio Renaud, “Mija”
Dawson Prize
Yvette N. Louisell, “The Glove Compartment”
Honorable Mentions
James Burns, “A Taste of Honey”
Raymond Simmons, “Tiger”
Keith D. Courville, “A Journey Back”
ESSAY
First Place
Steve Champion, “His Spirit Lives On: George E. Marshall, 1940-2001”
Second Place
J. C. Amberchele, “Freedom”
Third Place
Paul A. Moran, “Recycling Humanity”
Honorable Mentions
Stephen Fraley, “The Fallacy of Doing Your Bid as if it’s Not your Life”
José Boner, “Prison Poets”
G. Wilford Hathorn, “Trashcan Food and a Concrete Shithouse”
DRAMA
First Place
Curtis L. Easley, “Madness”
Second Place
Brendan Cochrane and Joseph Assadourian, “Joey Shakespeare”
Third Place
Kamau Bakari, “The Least Traveled Path”
Dawson Prize
Peter T. Paulson, “Tragedy and Basketball”
Honorable Mentions
J. P. Parnell, “One Isolated Day”
Tyrone Wyche, “Jailhouse Law”
Osvaldo Z. Gonzales, “The Price of Freedom”
Fielding Dawson Citations
Dawson Citation for a Body of Work
David Wood, “Kaddish”
Dawson Citation for Outstanding Achievement
William Hester, “Hero of the Quotidian”