Incarcerated Judges Select First Winner Of Inside Literary Prize

Launched in December 2023, 200 incarcerated individuals voted on a winner.

The first U.S. book prize comprised of incarcerated judges has announced its first-ever winner: Imani Perry’s for her novel, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation.

Launched in December 2023, the Inside Literary Prize included over 200 incarcerated individuals to vote on the novels. The literary award was created with Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation, and the Center for Justice Innovation alongside Dallas bookstore owner Lori Feathers.

“Reading literature and poetry throughout my nearly nine years in prison played an enormous role in shaping the person I am today,” said Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts in a press release on its launch. “Through the reading and judging of leading American literary works, the Inside Literary Prize competition will provide a national platform for incarcerated individuals to meaningfully participate in our shared national cultural conversation. Freedom Reads could not be more proud to work with our partners on this initiative as we turn this vision into an annual reality. Freedom begins with a book.”

The inaugural winner was announced August 1 during the New York Ceremony, also emceed by Betts. The judges participated via video streaming and spoke of their role’s importance in determining the winner.

“Being a judge…just meant a lot for me,” said Chelsea, a judge from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee, as stated in a news release. “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.”

The judges came from 12 prisons across the country. Representatives from the sponsoring organizations led discussions at each prison. Following these conversations, readers voted on the prize winner. Their shortlist included Tess Gunty’s novel, The Rabbit Hutch; Jamil Jan Kochai’s short story collection,The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories; and Roger Reeves’ poetry book, Best Barbarian.

“In this honor, I renew my sense of responsibility to the millions of people incarcerated and under state supervision,” Perry said. “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.”

Perry’s book, published in 2022, combines the formats of a memoir and travelogue. The author detailed her journey and personal history throughout the American South. Her $4,860 prize also holds significance to the plight of incarcerated people. It amounts to five years of work at 54 cents an hour, what Betts earned while working at his prison’s library.

“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,” said Perry, who also received the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction “…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.”