Peter Watson is an intern with the Prison Writing Program at PEN America. A senior at Lehman College in the CUNY Cultural Corps program, he is committed to the crossroads between language and advocacy. Before joining PEN America, Watson was an intern at The Legal Aid Society, where he helped investigate cases of wrongful conviction due to institutional negligence, systemic racism, and abuses of power. Since 2019, he has been the managing editor of Lehman College’s newspaper, The Meridian, editing articles on topics such as food insecurity and disparities in access to healthcare. He has also interned at the Eastchester Historical Society, where he researched the lives of Irish immigrants in the Hudson Valley during the late 19th century, and has volunteered for environmental organizations including the Bronx River Alliance, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, NYC H2O, and Riverkeeper. Watson operates Paintings for the Planet, a website where he sells his landscape artworks, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to local environment charities.
Peter Watson
Intern, Prison Writing Program
Articles by Peter Watson
The PEN Ten: An Interview with the 2021 PEN Prison Writing Award Winners
“Am I a writer imprisoned, or has imprisonment made me a writer? Parallel universes aside, imprisonment. . . does contain all the essential ingredients of a writer’s life.”