April 2026 Newsletter

I have been out of prison for just over two decades, and in that time I have gotten at least three honorary degrees. Not once have I had my sons or my mom or any of my closest friends come and listen to me address a class of graduates. Such a huge honor, one that I'm deeply grateful for, and one I realize now that I might not have believed I deserved. That's the strange thing about prison: it makes you question what you deserve. And yet there's also something profoundly beautiful about what men, women, and children create in prisons.

I say that freedom begins with a book, and I mean it. While I had no idea what National Poetry Month was while I was inside, I found poetry and it transformed my life. I met men in prison who used books to teach themselves how to repair any kind of electronics that would ever come into the Department of Corrections. I met men who taught themselves how to trade stocks and bonds, who taught themselves how to be better fathers, who taught themselves the history of this country all through books. I met people who became autodidacts because of what was available to them. I met others who suffered because of what was not available to them.

I've never asked my mom to come and watch me give a commencement speech. But a few days ago I had the opportunity to bring my mom to Vancouver, Canada, where she watched me give a TED Talk. I was afraid that I wouldn't be allowed into the country because of my felony convictions. 

But more than my fear, I remember walking on that stage and telling a story about how it was the ingenuity of men inside who helped me become the man that I am today.

I often say that freedom begins with a book, but as I gave my talk on the red circle to a packed audience, I thought mostly about my mom. While freedom does begin with a book, the first step is love. My mom always loved me and always made me know that I was more than the worst thing that I had done in my life. I think love is the thing that allows us to have an uncluttering of our brains — whether that's the love of self or the love that someone else gives us.

When I finished speaking, loud applause broke the quiet. I looked up. People were standing. I’m told my mom was crying. Standing on the red circle, I wore this beautifully and wildly colored coat. I thought about Doggerel, my latest poetry collection and the most joyous book that I’ve ever written. The cover of Doggerel is so lovely that I turned it into a coat, so that it, too, might become a poem that I can wear into the world. On the TED Stage, it became its own ode to love. 

If you appreciate the work that Freedom Reads does – I ask you to tell someone, as we must make good news spread as fast as our grievances. As we end this National Poetry Month, read a poem to a loved one or text a poem you care about to someone who loves you. And if you have the means to support the work with a donation, please do. Let's make freedom beginning with a book become an action as well as a statement.

We are thrilled to announce that March Forth, the documentary chronicling the life and work of Freedom Reads founder and CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts, has been selected for the 2026 Tribeca Festival! Read the press release for more information.

The Inside Literary Prize staff team hit the road this week, with the first stop of the tour taking place in Illinois. We were thrilled to be joined by Freedom Reads founder and CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts and 2025 Inside Literary Prize winner Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah — two extraordinary voices who led author talks with incarcerated readers. While on the ground, judges dove into discussions on this year's shortlisted titles and individually voted for the book they believed should win. Click the button below to read the press release.

By Dempsey, Resident Creative Writer, Freedom Reads

Sometime in the 1980s, a friend of mine had just been denied parole and was in need of an uplift. I thought of giving him a book to help take his mind elsewhere and chose Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land. I felt that reading Manchild following his denial would cut through the disappointment with something steadier and more defiant. Provide proof that despite missteps, life and growth continue even when it feels stalled.

By James Davis III, Communications Associate, Freedom Reads

The 15th annual National Conference on Higher Education (NCHEP) in Prison was held in Cleveland, OH this year - and I was there. I went to prison in January of 2000 and got out in July of 2025. In 2011, while Inside, I joined Wesleyan University’s Center for Prison Education Program (CPE) - I had been in college almost since the first NCHEP.

On Tuesday, April 21, Freedom Reads hosted Mayor Adam Sendroff and local government representatives for an Earth Day tour of their Hamden, CT headquarters and woodworking partner J. Joiners. The group saw firsthand the sustainable, waste-minimizing manufacturing process behind Freedom Reads' handcrafted libraries — from J. Joiners' innovative use of reclaimed wood materials to the artisan assembly at Freedom Reads.

Meet Ben Bruce, the Chief Financial Officer of Freedom Reads. On any given day, Ben is the steady hand behind the organization's financial operations, reviewing transactions, approving expense reports, closing the books each month, and steering longer-term projects like the annual budget and year-end audit. He describes his work as balancing a dual objective: advancing the organization's mission while staying true to sound financial policy and legal requirements.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we're celebrating Rita Dove — Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, professor, and the first African American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate (1993–95). Her celebrated collection Thomas and Beulah, which weaves together the lives of an ordinary couple across decades of American history, is part of our Freedom Library collection for incarcerated readers.

Each newsletter we aim to share at least one letter (or excerpt) from one of Freedom Reads’ now 65,000-plus Freedom Library patrons. Freedom Reads receives many letters from the Inside. They mean so much to us. And we respond to each and every one of them.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to read books I never would have picked up on my own, authors I never would have known existed if not for this… To whomever this may concern, I hope this letter finds you sunny and inspired. Thank you for taking the time to read this - I am truly grateful.”

Kyra, Freedom Library Patron at Washington Corrections Center for Women, Washington

“Seeing your bookshelves for the first time. Being able to pick up a book and transport myself to a better place in my mind where I cannot be bored is so wonderful. Thanks to you and your organization I’ve strengthened myself mentally and spiritually through your books…With Freedom Reads I have not been incarcerated but freed. I thank you for your service to all of us.”

Branden, Freedom Library Patron at Maine State Prison, Maine

Be sure to tune in to Dwayne’s recent podcast appearances on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend and Black and Published!

On April 8th, Haymarket Books and Mellon Foundation announced the third cohort of ‘Writing Freedom’ Fellows, which includes our very own Reginald Dwayne Betts! This prestigious fellowship celebrates writers doing transformative work at the intersection of literature, justice, and liberation — and we couldn't be prouder that Dwayne is among them.

Dwayne can also be found reading the poem, “The More Loving One” by W.H. Auden, for the New York Times Poetry Challenge.