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A man with braided hair, glasses, and a beard sits smiling in a room with stacked chairs. He wears beige scrubs and a name tag with colored cards attached.

Derek R. Trumbo, Sr

Derek R. Trumbo, Sr. is a multi PEN Prison Writing Awards winner. His creative nonfiction column on mass incarceration, “Never Eat the Candy on Your Pillow: A Commonsense Guide to Prison,” is published with Prism. His work has been published by the Vera Institute of Justice and in The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting a Writer’s Life in Prison (Haymarket Books, 2022).

Articles by Derek R. Trumbo, Sr

A split image: on the left, Derek Trumbo in scrubs sits in profile with hands folded; on the right, Agustin Lopez faces the camera. Red speech bubble icons appear in both bottom corners, hinting at pen prison writing conversations.
Prison and Justice Writing
Wednesday November 11

Tasked to Dream

These dual essays were written by Derek Trumbo and Agustin Lopez, 2020 honorees for the PEN America/L’Engle-Rahman Prize for Mentorship.

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A close-up of a broken glass pane with a jagged hole in the center reveals a view of the blue sky and some white clouds outside. The edges of the glass are sharp and cracked.
Prison and Justice Writing
Monday September 9

The Thaw

“You had to have something you wanted from life before you came to prison.”

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Prison and Justice Writing
Tuesday August 25

Inferno

You can scream, you can holla, you can yell, you can shout! /
It won’t change a thing, they not letting us out.

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More Articles by Derek R. Trumbo, Sr

Prison and Justice Writing
Friday July 26

Conviction