MENTOR A WRITER IN PRISON The PEN Prison Writing Mentorship Program seeks volunteers to mentor incarcerated individuals in their writing. >> More information JOIN THE PRISON WRITING COMMITTEE The PEN Prison Writing Program is seeking new members to help judge the annual Prison Writing Contest. Committee membership requires attendance at quarterly meetings, and reading a selection of contest entries. >> Contact prisonwriting@pen.org DONATE BOOKS As you might guess, most prison libraries are grim indeed: many lack even a basic dictionary or encyclopedia. We encourage you to send any extra literary books or galleys to prison library book-donation programs. >>  More information SEND A HANDBOOK TO A WRITER IN PRISON PEN's Handbook for Writers in Prison features detailed guides on the art of writing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays, as well as information on punctuation, cover letters, and a list of recommended magazines and journals that consider work for publication. This is an invaluable resource to any incarcerated writer. >> More information WRITE A LETTER Four recipients of PEN's Prison Writing Awards are currently on death row awaiting execution. Join the letter writing campaign to have these sentences commuted. >> More information SUPPORT PWP Help support the annual Prison Writing Contest, Mentor Program, and the Handbook for Writers in Prison by making an online contribution to PEN's Prison Writing Program.  >> Make a contribution Home > Prison Writing | | Founded in 1971, the PEN Prison Writing Program believes in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing, by providing hundreds of inmates across the country with skilled writing teachers and audiences for their work. The program seeks to provide a place for inmates to express themselves freely with paper and pen and to encourage the use of the written word as a legitimate form of power. The program sponsors an annual writing contest, publishes a free handbook for prisoners, provides one-on-one mentoring to inmates whose writing shows merit or promise, conducts workshops for former inmates, and seeks to get inmates' work to the public through literary publications and readings. 2006 HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS IN PRISON PEN is pleased to announce the release of the 2006 Handbook for Writers in Prison. The new edition features detailed guides on the art of writing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. This is an invaluable resource to any incarcerated writer.   PUBLICATIONS BY PRISON WRITING CONTEST WINNERS J.C. Amberchele, How You Lose, A Novel in Stories, Carroll & Graf, 2002; paper, 2003. Victor Hassine, Life Without Parole: Living in Prison Today, Roxbury Publishing Co, 2nd ed., 1999. Victor Hassine, Robert Johnson, Ania Dobrzanska, The Crying Wall: and Other Prison Stories, Infinity Publishing, 2005. Jarvis Jay Masters, Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row, Padma Publishing, 1997. See www.freejarvis.org.   PEN POSITION PAPERS ON PAROLE & THE DEATH PENALTY Together with the PEN Freedom to Write Program, the Prison Writing Program has produced several position papers on topics related to writers in prison in the United States.   SILENCING WRITERS ON DEATH ROW In December of 2005, shortly before the execution of Tookie William, Anthony Ross and Steve Champion, both first place winners in PEN's Prison Writing contest, were moved from their cells to the Adjustment Center, also known as the “hole.” The reason: charges of conspiracy to retaliate for the execution. After more than two years of isolation and dehumanizing treatment, Ross and Champion co-authored the article "Paradigm of Abuse: San Quentin's Adjustment Center Revisited" for a May 2007 edition of the San Francisco Bay View in which they invoke Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment. Shortly after the article appeared, Ross's and Champion's writing materials and reference books were confiscated without reason. [More]  WINNERS OF THE 2007 PRISON WRITING CONTEST Every year hundreds of inmates from around the country submit poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic plays to PEN's Prison Writing Contest, one of the few outlets of free expression for the country's incarcerated. Manuscripts come to us in many forms: handwritten, typed, and written in the margins of legal documents. The Prison Writing Committee is proud to announce the winners of the 2007 Prison Writing Contest. >> Complete 2007 winners list SELECTIONS FROM THE WINNERS Doing Time by Steven Bulleit First Prize, Poetry Sunday evening Mom and Dad unwind on the couch,/ her full black hair lays against Dad’s shoulder./The iconic stopwatch fills the screen, the second hand/sweeps north, folding its final ticks into silence. [More] "Feeling(s) Cheated" by J.E. Wantz First Prize, Nonfiction/Essay From 1995 to 2005 I was on Paxil, a medication that, ostensibly, was to help me in the areas of depression and obsessive compulsive thinking. As I look back on the role that this medication has played in my life for the last 10 years I begin to wonder. [More] Just Another Death by Christina MacNaughton First Place, Memoir I sit on my bunk as the minutes tick by. The count should have cleared over half an hour ago. Something’s up. In a place where timing and routine and schedule are the axis upon which the world revolves, remaining locked for so long past the standard count time sends Morse code through the heart of every inmate. [More] "Confessions of a Jack-Off Artist" by Clifford Barnes First Prize, Fiction I like cocaine. No, I love it. It can be pure or stepped on with Inositol, B.C. Powder, or Equal. I’ll cook it up, draw it into the rig, and shoot it. I love bumpin’ coke because I get a feeling like when I was twelve and skeeted for the first time, except the rush is ten-times more intense and lasts about fifteen to twenty minutes. [More] Home | Site Map | Copyright / Privacy Policy | Contact Us © 2004-2008 PEN American Center. All rights reserved.