Building on the success and inspiration of last year’s inaugural Inside Literary Prize, groups to bring exceptional books to hundreds of readers in prison; Prize to be awarded in June 2025
Today, Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation, and the Center for Justice Innovation announced the shortlist for the 2025 Inside Literary Prize, the first-ever US-based literary prize awarded exclusively by currently incarcerated people. The prize will be awarded in June 2025 to one exceptional book by a jury of 300 incarcerated individuals from a dozen prisons across the nation. This initiative, which is also supported by Lori Feathers, literary podcaster and co-owner of Interabang Books, seeks to expand access to our country’s most thought-provoking literature for people who are incarcerated.
In the coming days, 25 judges at each of 12 prisons across six states and territories—including both men’s and women’s facilities—will be given copies of the four National Book Award–honored books listed below. Freedom Reads also will provide each facility with additional sets of each book for general circulation in the facility library, as well as for correctional staff. After a several-week period dedicated to the reading of the titles, Inside Literary Prize organizers will travel this spring to each prison to lead live discussions, conduct voting, and host literary readings with acclaimed authors.
This is the second annual Inside Literary Prize. The first, bestowed in August 2024, was awarded to South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry. Upon receiving the award at a ceremony at the New York Public Library, Perry said, “In this honor, I renew my sense of responsibility to the millions of people incarcerated and under state supervision. Not as a matter of charity, but rather out of the deepest respect for the insight that comes from seeing society from the corners that it keeps hidden. And for the wisdom of those whom it keeps out of view. But most of all out of care for those in the grasp of confinement. 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…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.”
The four shortlisted books to be considered for the 2025 Inside Literary Prize were selected by a Selection Committee comprising incarcerated readers, writers, and Departments of Corrections librarians, who chose the following four books from the list of Finalists for the 2023 National Book Awards for Fiction and Translated Literature:
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars
Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
Paul Harding, This Other Eden
W. W. Norton & Company
Astrid Roemer, On a Woman’s Madness
Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott
Two Lines Press
Justin Torres, Blackouts
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers
Crystal “Alex” Capilla, a currently incarcerated member of the Selection Committee in Arizona, who also served as a judge for the inaugural Inside Literary Prize awarded in 2024, shared that it was “a once in a lifetime opportunity for me[,] I gained perspective, and insight into the person I want to be.”
Another 2024 judge and 2025 member of the Selection Committee, Phillip Smith in North Carolina, wrote that, “serving as an incarcerated judge for the inaugural Inside Literary Prize was a highlight of 23 years behind the wall. It gave me an opportunity to view books as much more than a reader; it taught me to peel back the layers of each work and to appreciate the story, whether I liked it or not. It was a lesson in critical thinking that helped me analyze each facet of the tale. I wasn't just reading about a foreign walk of life. I was living it,” adding that he jumped at the chance to serve on this year’s Selection Committee, with the “hope the works the committee selected will entertain the judges and introduce them to a world they may have never known otherwise.”
"It is with tremendous pride and excitement that Freedom Reads is able to come together again with our partners to bring this extraordinary cultural experience to hundreds more people in prisons across the country," said Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts. "With every Freedom Library that we open in prison cellblocks and with every Inside Literary Prize event that we bring Inside, we witness the incredible power of literature to inspire. Freedom begins with a book."
"We're so grateful to partner with Freedom Reads, the Center for Justice Innovation, and Lori Feathers to connect readers—and an expanded cohort of thoughtful judges—with National Book Award–honored works, spark conversation and community, and celebrate the power of exceptional literature," said Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation.
“The Inside Literary Prize is such a special and unique book award,” said Lori Feathers, literary podcaster and co-owner, Interabang Books. “The pure joy and enthusiasm that the incarcerated judges bring to the reading and discussion of these books offers hope and inspiration that by seeing our shared experiences reflected in literature, we can make our world better.”
“We are thrilled to once again join hands with our partner organizations and those who live and work in our jails and prisons to announce the shortlist for the Inside Literary Prize. The 2025 prize builds on last year’s wave of enthusiasm among the public, literary community, and the hundreds of incarcerated individuals who contributed as judges, readers, and participants in discussions and readings. In its second year, the Prize goes from an inaugural event to a tradition, one inspired by the dignity, intelligence and insights of people who are incarcerated, serving as a reminder of our shared humanity and the power of literature to connect,” said Courtney Bryan, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Justice Innovation.
About Freedom Reads:
Founded by Reginald Dwayne Betts, who knows firsthand the dispiriting forces of prison, Freedom Reads works to empower people through literature to confront what prison does to the spirit. Inspired by the recognition that freedom begins with a book, Freedom Reads supports the efforts of people in prison to transform their lives through increased access to books and writers. For more information about Freedom Reads and the Freedom Libraries project, please visit freedomreads.org.
About the National Book Foundation:
The mission of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards, is to celebrate the best literature published in the United States, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in our culture. The Foundation approaches this work from four programmatic angles: Awards & Honors recognize exceptional authors, advocates, literature, and literary programs; Education & Access initiatives foster a lifelong passion for books in young and adult readers; Public Programs bring acclaimed authors to communities nationwide to engage in conversations about books and showcase the power of literature as a tool for understanding our world; and Service to the Literary Field, provides support to the national literary ecosystem. Information on all of the Foundation’s programs can be found online at nationalbook.org.
About the Center for Justice Innovation:
The Center for Justice Innovation is a community justice organization that centers safety and racial justice. Since our founding in 1996, the Center has partnered with community members, courts, and the people most impacted to create stronger, healthier, more just communities. Our decades of experience in courts and communities, coupled with our field-leading research and practitioner expertise, help us drive justice nationwide in innovative, powerful, and durable ways. For more information on how and where we work, please visit www.innovatingjustice.org.