Writing From Prison

I co-founded Empowerment Avenue, a collective for advocates and incarcerated creatives committed to the radical act of collaboration, visibility, and paying incarcerated people fairly for their labor. For five years I oversaw its Writing for Liberation cohort, supporting a one-on-one volunteer model in which outside editors and writers are paired with incarcerated writers to work together to workshop and publish the incarcerated writer’s work.

Within its first three years of implementation, Empowerment Avenue Writing for Liberation supported publication of over 250 pieces of writing in dozens of publications, including reporting, investigative journalism, op-eds, personal essays, creative nonfiction, poetry and fiction. Writers collectively earned approximately $128,000 from that work. We went on to support hundreds of stories and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars to incarcerated writers.

I continue to do this work within a grassroots collective of incarcerated writers and outside supporters.

In 2021 I collaborated with Scalawag Magazine on the Press in Prison guidebook, a practical and abolitionist tool to invite more journalists and editors into this work. I’m a co-editor of the book published by Haymarket Books.

I’ve developed several more resources to further this effort and supported countless editors, journalists and publications to increase their capacity to work with incarcerated writers. If you are interested in my consulting services, please reach out.