The Inside Literary Prize is the first major US literary prize judged exclusively by incarcerated readers. In December 2023, Freedom Reads launched the Inside Literary Prize in collaboration with the National Book Foundation, the Center for Justice Innovation, and Dallas bookstore owner Lori Feathers. For the inaugural 2024 Prize, more than 200 incarcerated judges across 12 prisons in Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, and North Dakota read and voted on the shortlisted titles.
The 2024 Inside Literary Prize was awarded to Imani Perry for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation at a ceremony held at The New York Public Library on August 1, 2024.
2024 Shortlist
The Rabbit Hutch
The Rabbit Hutch is a stunning debut novel about four teenagers—recently aged out of the state foster-care system—living together in an apartment building in the post-industrial Midwest, exploring the quest for transcendence and the desire for love.
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a moving exploration of characters grappling with the ghosts of war and displacement—and one that speaks to the immediate political landscape we reckon with today.
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South—and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America.
Best Barbarian
The poems in Best Barbarian roam across the literary and social landscape, from Beowulf’s Grendel to the jazz musician Alice Coltrane, from reckoning with immigration at the U.S.–Mexico border to thinking through the fraught beauty of the moon on a summer night after the police have killed a Black man.
The four shortlisted books for 2024 were sent into 12 prisons in six states. The Freedom Reads team visited each prison to hold discussions of the books and provide the opportunity for the judges to cast their votes. The goal of the award is to create a way for incarcerated people to meaningfully participate in the national cultural conversation.
Of the 200 incarcerated people serving as judges, many expressed their appreciation for being included in this important award and being seen as dignified people and readers, not just “numbers.”
Timothy, an Inside Literary Prize (ILP) judge at Nash Correctional Institution in North Carolina, wrote about the experience: “I love, love, love books. For a book lover, getting to be a judge for a prominent literary prize ranks high on the life experience list, almost like a sports fan winning the Super Bowl.”
Interviews with the judges from the Shakopee Correctional Facility can be seen in this video and heard in a new episode of Center for Justice Innovation’s “New Thinking” podcast.
Reading brought me something invaluable—a community. For the first time in too long, I connected with women who shared my passion. Together, through literature, we found strength and unity in the most unlikely of places… Literature gave me life again.
In this honor, I renew my sense of responsibility to the millions of people incarcerated and under state supervision. … I think this prize is most of all a recognition of readers and may this recognition of the intellectual life that exists behind bars extend much further.
At an award ceremony held on August 1, 2024 at the New York Public Library, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry was awarded the inaugural Inside Literary Prize. The ceremony was emceed by Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts, and authors, advocates, and the judges themselves (via video) spoke eloquently about the role that literature and reading plays in the lives of incarcerated people.
“Being a judge…just meant a lot for me,” said Chelsea, a judge at Minnesota Correctional Facility - Shakopee. “It meant that my voice mattered, because for the last four and a half years, my voice hasn’t mattered. I got to be Chelsea. I wasn’t just my number.”
“In this honor, I renew my sense of responsibility to the millions of people incarcerated and under state supervision,” said Imani Perry, winner of the inaugural Inside Literary Prize. “God bless the organizers who believe in freedom. And, to the people inside, please know when I say ‘we’ and when I refer to ‘my people,’ I mean you too.”
A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation (Photo: Beowulf Sheehan)
2024 Inside Literary Prize Winner
Imani Perry
Imani Perry is the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Perry is the author of nine books, including May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons, and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. Her most recent book: Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, was published in January of 2025.