Writing Resources

ABO Comix is a collective that publishes comics, zines, and art created by LGBTQ people
behind bars. abocomix.com | abocomix@gmail.com | PO Box 11584, Oakland, CA 94611

All Rise is a social justice online and print publication developed, written, and curated by currently and formerly imprisoned people. www.allrisemedia.org | hello@allrisemedia.org

ANTIGRAVITY publishes work by incarcerated people sometimes. Relevant info:

JPay or other email system, use this email: fox@antigravitymagazine.com.
Physical address: PO Box 2215 Gretna, LA 70053

We are a New Orleans/Southern Louisiana-focused publication, so we would be interested in publishing writers incarcerated in Louisiana only.

Authors Inside is a nonprofit organization committed to publishing all genres that aim to make sustainable change through narrative writing. authorsinside.org | info@authorsinside.org | PO Box 293, Oceano, CA 93475

Between the Bars is a weblog platform for people in prison. betweenthebars.org | info@betweenthebars.org

Beyond the Block is an online publication of short-form creative writing from incarcerated people. medium.com/beyond-the-block | writebeyondtheblock@gmail.com | PO Box 16662, Philadelphia, PA 19139

Black & Pink has a nationwide pen pal program for incarcerated members and a newsletter
distributed free of charge to incarcerated LGBTQIA2S+ members and those living with HIV/AIDS. blackandpink.org | admin@blackandpink.org | 2406 Fowler Ave. Suite 316, Omaha, NE 68111

Tacenda Literary Magazine: An Arts and Social Justice Journal is an online publication from BleakHouse Publishing dedicated to creative writing on crime and punishment. bleakhousepublishing.org | bleakhousepublishing@gmail.com | Professor Robert Johnson, BleakHouse Publishing, Dept. of Justice, Law, and Criminology, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20016

Cell Count is a newsletter by and for prisoners, created by PASAN, the Prisoners HIV/AIDS Support Action Network in Toronto, Ontario.
http://pasan.org/subscribe.html

The submission period is now open. We accept submissions from current and formerly incarcerated writers in the following categories:

Fiction (up to 5,000 words)
Nonfiction (up to 5,000 words)
Poetry (up to 5 pages)
Visual Art (up to 5 pages)

Columbia Journal’s Incarcerated Writers Initiative opens the student publishing platform to writers in prisons across the United States. columbiajournal.org/iwi | Incarcerated Writers Initiative, Columbia Artists/Teachers, 415 Dodge Hall, Mail Code 1804, 2960 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

Letters to the editor: 300 words or less
Articles: 800–1,200 words or less
Please submit with images or photos if possible.

Submit a well-researched but brief pitch of less than 500 words. Include your CV and a proposed budget. But first, please visit EconomicHardship.org to find out what kinds of stories we fund. We tend to award grants to experienced journalists, though we are open to submissions from emerging talents. Photographers should send us low-resolution images (72 dpi) along with a pitch or a query letter attached. All images should include captions in the metadata or an attached caption document. Let us know if other news outlets have covered your story and how your piece will be different.

Emancipated Stories collects writing and art by justice-involved individuals with the purpose of bridging those inside prison and those outside. quiara.com/emancipatedstories | emancipatedstories@gmail.com | Quiara Hudes, PO Box 569, New York, NY 10040

Evening Street Press publishes the DIY Prison Project, with the idea of showcasing the work of incarcerated writers. eveningstreetpress.com/diy-prison-project | editor@eveningstreetpress.com | 2881 Wright St., Sacramento, CA 95821

contact @kastaliamedrano for questions. We welcome pitches for feature-length articles around our subject areas, including investigative reports, op-eds, essays and interviews. Please send proposals (rather than drafts) and a sample of your previous work. Due to volume of pitches, we regret we cannot reply to them all; we will get back to you within a week if your idea is one we can use.

Free Time: Building Community for Incarcerated Writers, organized through the University of Arizona Poetry Center, pairs incarcerated writers with an outside mentor and coordinates an annual cash prize poetry and prose contest open only to Free Time writers. heyjoewatson@arizona.edu | Free Time, PO Box 210150, 1508 E. Helen St., Tucson, AZ 85721

Grid News is open to submissions from incarcerated writers. Any interested writers should pitch to Serena Golden (sgolden@grid.news). We typically look for explainers, pieces contextualizing a newsy topic, or first-person narratives about a newsy topic (for example, we just published an essay by a Ukrainian novelist on his experience in the war).

High Country News has a history of publishing writers who are incarcerated and are very committed to continuing that. Here is our submissions page, which includes pay information and editor contact info (https://www.hcn.org/about/submissions).

HuffPost has published a couple of writers who are incarcerated and I’d love to help advocate for more. Here’s the pitching guidelines (National and Personal are the two teams that have already worked with people in prison.)

It’s all paid, but I’m not sure what the rates are for each type of submission. I think personal pieces pay pretty low (maybe $150) but it’s higher for reported pieces, with the exact amount depending on length/reporting lift. I believe Chris was paid ~ $1,000 for this cobylined reported feature (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/medical-isolation-solitary-confinement-prisons-jails-pandemic_n_615f2f01e4b02bd79fbca775).

Incarcerated Writers Project at phoebe was started by the editors at phoebe, an online journal, as a way to open the publishing platform to writers in prison. phoebejournal.com/iwp/ | phoebeliterature@gmail.com | Incarcerated Writers Project, Phoebe Journal, George Mason University, The Hub, Suite 1201, MSC5, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030

Iron City Magazine is an online and print journal devoted to writing and art from the prison world. ironcitymagazine.org | ironcitymagazine@gmail.com | PO Box 370, Tempe, AZ 85280

For Jewish Currents, a print and online digital magazine of politics, culture, and ideas, rooted in the questions that animate the Jewish left and the left more generally, submissions can be sent to submissions@jewishcurrents.org or mailed to PO Box 130049, Brooklyn, NY 11213. Guidelines at http://tinyurl.com/jcincarceratedwriters.

John Jay College’s J Journal seeks fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that examines questions of justice. www.jjournal.org | Editors, J Journal, Department of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 West 59th St., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10019

Journal of Prisoners on Prisons (JPP) is a prisoner-written, academically oriented, and peer-reviewed nonprofit journal. jpp.org | jpp@uottawa.ca | Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5

Knock LA, then styled KNOCK.LA, began life as a Medium blog in 2017. It was created by members of Ground Game LA, a grassroots community organizing group, to fill the gap in alt-weekly coverage of Los Angeles left by the death of LA Weekly. Then as now, Knock LA was powered by passionate journalists, organizers, and advocates working together to bring a new perspective to Angelenos.

Knock LA is currently accepting pitches! Anyone can pitch to Knock LA, regardless of their level of published writing experience. News becomes boring and myopic when it’s written by the same group of people.

We strongly encourage writers who have been historically marginalized and excluded from mainstream media, including people of color, those experiencing homelessness, and LGBTQ+ writers, to submit. Additionally, if you are a representative of an activist group, we will consider publishing any open letters or calls to action under our Activism vertical (however, we typically do not compensate writers for Activism or Opinion pieces).

luckyjefferson.com/submit (we currently use Submittable, but are happy to begin accepting emails and postage from incarcerated writers)

Minutes Before Six welcomes original entries from new incarcerated writers. minutesbeforesix.blogspot.com | dina@minutesbeforesix.com | 2784 Homestead Rd. #301, Santa Clara, CA 95051

New York Focus has published opinion pieces by incarcerated people, and has paid $250. We cover New York policy and politics, including the criminal-legal system. Our pitches email is pitches@nysfocus.com.

News Inside is the Marshall Project’s award-winning print publication for people inside. https://www.themarshallproject.org/tag/news-inside | newsinside@themarshallproject.org | Lawrence Bartley, The Marshall Project, 156 W. 56th St. Suite 701, New York, NY 10019

We at Next City are definitely interested in more contributions from incarcerated writers. We are an independent, nonprofit outlet publishing solutions journalism on urban affairs.

Here are our pitch guidelines: https://nextcity.org/pitch.

Our base freelance rate is $350-$400 for 700-1000 word stories. We do pay higher rates depending on availability of funding for certain topics or complexity & length of the story.

PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship commissions writers to create written works that illuminate issues related to mass incarceration and catalyze public debate. pen.org/writing-justice | prisonwriting@pen.org | 588 Broadway, Suite 303, New York, NY 10012

PEN Prison Writing Contest: The annual contest, decades running, accepts entries in poetry, fiction, drama, nonfiction, and memoir. pen.org/prison-writing | prisonwriting@pen.org | 588 Broadway, Suite 303, New York, NY 10012

I run a small press that is committed to publishing original works from ppl who’ve been impacted by the carceral system, and all published work is free to ppl inside http://porositypress.com

Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing: The Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan’s journal showcases the talent and diversity of Michigan’s incarcerated writers. lsa.umich.edu/pcap/programs/literary-review | PCAP at Residential College, 1801 East Quadrangle, 701 E. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1245

Prison Journalism Project trains incarcerated writers to be journalists and publishes their stories. We accept first person essays; op eds; journalism based on observation, first person experiences and interviews; poetry and illustrated journalism. We have an extensive submissions document with three pages of writing prompts that writers can request that is also available here.

Stories and requests for our welcome packet can be sent via JPay and other email services to pjp@prisonjournalismproject.org

Or
Postal address:

Prison Journalism Project
2093 Philadelphia Pike #1054
Claymont, DE 19703

Unclear if they accept submissions or only publish the writings of their staff.

Prison Writers: Founded by journalists from USA Today and CBS News in 2015, Prison Writers is devoted exclusively to publishing stories written by incarcerated people. prisonwriters.com | prisonwriters@gmail.com | PO Box 334, New York, NY 10002

Prisoner Express creates opportunities for incarcerated people to get information, education, and a public forum for creative self-expression. prisonerexpress.org | CTA/Durland Alternatives Library, Prisoner Express, PO Box 6556, Ithaca, NY 14851

Prisons Foundation publishes scanned digital files of work, as submitted (including full books), of incarcerated writers on its website. prisonsfoundation.org | staff@prisonsfoundation.org | 2512 Virginia Ave. NW #58043, Washington, DC 20037

My paper is Queen City Nerve. We’re a Charlotte-based alt-weekly and we’d love to publish op-eds and articles from incarcerated people with ties to NC or Charlotte. You can reach our EIC Ryan Pitkin at rpitkin@qcnerve.com.

ReSentencing Journal, a project of Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College, publishes the work of writers and visual artists impacted by incarceration to represent and reimagine the experience of imprisonment and freedom in the US from a personal point of view. sites.tufts.edu/tupit/resentencing-journal | resentencing@tufts.edu | 163 Packard Ave., Barnum Hall, Medford, MA 02155

ScheerPost, a progressive independent news outlet where I work, publishes work by incarcerated writers. In the past we’ve published articles about CDCR lawsuits and the coronavirus sweeping through the prisons. Anyone interested can contact Victoria Valenzuela: vevalenz@usc.edu

Sinister Wisdom is a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal interested in work that reflects the diversity of the lesbian experience. sinisterwisdom.org | 2333 McIntosh Rd., Dover, FL 33527

Sojourn: A Daily Arts Journal is a daily prompted arts journal from the University of Denver’s Prison Arts Initiative. To download a free copy, please visit https://liberalarts.du.edu/prison-arts/our-work/luxlit-press.

Publishing incarcerated writers is central to Solitary Watch’s mission. We always welcome contributions for our long-running “Voices from Solitary” series, which features writers describing their lived experience of solitary confinement, and occasionally poems or artwork ($50 and up; send to voices@solitarywatch.org or Solitary Watch, PO Box 11374, Washington, D.C. 20008). We also welcome freelance pitches for reported articles on solitary confinement from incarcerated writers ($250 and up depending on length and complexity; send to PO Box or journalism@solitarywatch.org) and can sometimes provide assistance with research as well as editing. In addition, in spring 2022 we will be announcing the second round of our competitive reporting grants for currently and formerly incarcerated journalists, which will provide grants of $500-$2,500 for reported articles and investigations on solitary confinement and other underreported conditions-related issues. (Writers may contact us at PO Box or journalism@solitarywatch.org if they would like to receive grant guidelines when they become available.)

Street Noise Books is interested in working with incarcerated comic artists who might want to create a graphic memoir.

Pub name: Street Roots, street paper and online news site based in Portland, Oregon.

Guidelines: Biggest focus is on housing but also covers a range of social and economic issues

Submissions email: editor@streetroots.org
Physical address: 211 NW Davis St Portland OR 97209

Lexi McMenamin (they/them), News & Politics Editor at Teen Vogue. – alexa_mcmenamin@condenast.com

The American Prison Writing Archive is an open-source archive for those living and working behind bars to document their experience. apw.dhinitiative.org | dlarson@hamilton.edu | Doran Larson, Hamilton College, 198 College Hill Rd., Clinton, NY 13323

The Beat Within is a biweekly publication of writing and art from behind bars that aims to support incarcerated youth. thebeatwithin.org | PO Box 34310, San Francisco, CA 94134

Lots of folks have said the ones I know of, to which I would just add @ChrisWBlackwell has published a lot in @TheCrimeReport

The Inside Report is written by and for the people who live and work within the Colorado DOC. https://www.insidereportnews.com/issues | DU Prison Arts Initiative, 2135 E. Wesley Ave. Suite 304 Denver, CO 80210.

The Insider Prize, annually hosted by the magazine American Short Fiction, recognizes excellent work by incarcerated writers in Texas. americanshortfiction.org/submityourwork/the-insider-prize | editors@americanshortfiction.org | PO Box 4828, Austin, TX 78765

The Journal of Women and Criminal Justice features art and writing from justice-involved persons and advocates. Through a combination of personal testimonies and research, the journal highlights issues related to women and incarceration. women.reentry@gmail.com | New Jersey Reentry Corporation, ATTN: The Journal of Women and Criminal Justice, 591 Summit Ave. Suite 605B, Jersey City, NJ 07306

The Justice Arts Coalition is a nationwide collective of people committed to increasing opportunities for creative expression in carceral settings and shaping public dialogue around arts and justice. thejusticeartscoalition.org | info@thejusticeartscoalition.org | PO Box 8261 Silver Spring, MD 20907

The Marshall Project’s “Life Inside” is a series of first-person essays from people who live or work in the criminal justice system. themarshallproject.org/tag/life-inside | lifeinside@themarshallproject.org | 156 West 56th St. Suite 701, New York, NY 1001

The Sun Magazine publishes personal essays, short stories, and poems. Though not exclusively for incarcerated writers, this magazine often includes their work. thesunmagazine.org | 107 N. Roberson St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516

Truthout – in general and this https://truthout.org/articles/keeley-schenwar-memorial-essay-prize/

Underground Writing’s re/vision program is a one-on-one creative writing apprenticeship program, conducted through the mail, for those who are currently incarcerated. undergroundwriting.org | info@undergroundwriting.org | PO Box 1043, Mount Vernon, WA 98273

University of Southern California Dornsife Prison Education Project, an organization dedicated to creating pathways from incarceration to college, holds several annual essay contests for systems-impacted writers. dornsife.usc.edu/pep | uscpepwriting@gmail.com | 940 W. Jefferson Blvd., JEF 210A,
Los Angeles, CA 90089

You can add
@weoutherenet
. We’re a local hip-hop publication in the Pacific Northwest that also focuses on the criminal punishment system. We’ve been looking to connect with incarcerated writers here! Pitches can be sent to
@MacSmiff
Mac@weouthere.net – http://www.weouthere.net

Wired’s ideas section; see pitch guide here: https://www.wired.com/about/how-to-pitch-wired-ideas/
For features—longform or investigative reporting relating to tech/science—I’m available at Camille_Bromley@wired.com (I have also been in touch with Empowerment Avenue) Pitch guide for features here: https://www.wired.com/about/how-to-pitch-stories-to-wired/

Words of Fire is an anthology of art, short stories, essays, and poetry by incarcerated writers. prisonbooks.info | prisonbooks@gmail.com | PO Box 625, Carrboro, NC 27510

Youth Leadership Institute publishes articles to our blog. We’d be very interested in publishing work by incarcerated transitional age youth (14-26 years old).