The Freedom Reads team packs books for the Inside Literary Prize. (Photo: Keenan Hochschild)

Inside Literary Prize

The first major US literary prize awarded by incarcerated people.

In December 2023, Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation, and the Center for Justice Innovation, with support from Lori Feathers, launched the Inside Literary Prize, which seeks to honor the insights incarcerated readers add to cultural conversations.

The first Prize was awarded on August 1, 2024, by a jury of hundreds of incarcerated readers from 12 prisons in six states — Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, and North Dakota — to Imani Perry, author of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. Below are the four shortlisted books that were under consideration in 2024.

Stacked copies of the book Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves, a current Inside Literary Prize finalist.
Inside Literary Prize shortlisted book: Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves
Stacked copies of the book The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai, a current Inside Literary Prize finalist.
Inside Literary Prize shortlisted book: The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai
Stacked copies of the book The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty, a current Inside Literary Prize finalist.
Inside Literary Prize shortlisted book: The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Stacked copies of the book South to America: a Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry, a current Inside Literary Prize finalist.
Inside Literary Prize shortlisted book: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

This spring, the Freedom Reads team visited all 12 prisons to lead live discussions of the books, conduct voting, and host literary readings with acclaimed writers and poets, including Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Roger Bonair-Agard, Randall Horton, Douglas Kearney, and Reginald Dwayne Betts.

Detail of table with inmates reading and discussing South to America by Imani Perry and The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Inside Literary Prize book discussion in an Arizona prison.
A group of Arizona State Prison Yuma inmates clad in bright orange listening to Dwayne Betts speaking at a wooden podium.
Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts speaks at Arizona State Prison Complex - Yuma during the Inside Literary Prize tour.
Audience clad in bright orange in front of sunlit windows listening to Reginald Dwayne Betts.
Audience at Arizona State Prison Complex - Perryville listens to Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts perform a reading of his book, FELON.

Reading is such an integral part of my life and when I come across bright minds who share a love of literature I light up with enthusiasm. Novels and writing have led me to many impromptu book clubs with the most interesting people filled with suggestions, reviews, and unlikely friendships.

Ramell, Freedom Library Patron at Correctional Training Facility, California

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