NEW YORK – PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program announced it has launched the Incarcerated Writers Bureau, a new digital platform designed to expand professional and creative opportunities for incarcerated writers and challenge long-standing industry barriers that exclude them. The platform, developed with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to provide direct pathways for incarcerated writers to participate fully in the literary world.
According to a press release from PEN America, the Bureau offers publishers, journalists, and literary agents guidance on how to contact, collaborate with, and compensate incarcerated writers. The opportunities are also printed in a quarterly physical newsletter mailed to participants in prison.
PEN America co-interim CEO Clarisse Sharif emphasized the importance of creating equitable access for incarcerated people in the publishing industry. She said while publishing has made progress toward diversity, “one group that typically gets left behind is the writers who are incarcerated or impacted by the justice system.” She added that the Bureau’s main objective is breaking down “walls of separation” that have blocked talented incarcerated writers from professional pursuit of their craft.
Twenty-one writers are currently featured on the platform, including Christopher Blackwell (WA), Ivié Demolina (NY), Spoon Jackson (CA), Elizabeth Hawes (MN), Lyle C. May (NC), and Derek Trumbo (KY). Their work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Poetry, and Hayden’s Ferry Review. Almost half of the featured writers earned recognition through the Stillwater Awards and the Writing Freedom Fellowship, according to the PEN America press release.
Writer P.M. Dunne, a multi-time nominee in the PEN Prison Writing Awards, praised the initiative and its effort to center incarcerated voices. “The Incarcerated Writers Bureau helps to bridge the gap that has long existed between incarcerated writers and publishers,” Dunne said. “The literary canon bursts with human beings who penned masterpieces while locked in cages. We’re here to continue that good work.”
The press release notes that PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program began more than 50 years ago and now connects thousands of incarcerated writers with mentorship, education, and national platforms for publication. The program also leads the annual PEN Prison Writing Awards, which recognize outstanding work in poetry, fiction, memoir, and essay and provide winners with access to PEN’s distance education mentorship opportunities.
Overall, the release underscores PEN America’s commitment to ensuring that incarcerated individuals are not excluded from literary spaces. By formalizing the Incarcerated Writers Bureau, the organization aims to affirm the identities, talent, and humanity of writers behind bars and demonstrate that creative opportunity should not end at incarceration.
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