The Inside Literary Prize is the first major US book award to be judged exclusively by people who are currently serving prison sentences.
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….Tonight, I stand here free, not just from physical confines, but from the isolation that once defined me. Literature gave me life again.”
Lyndie Felsher, 2025 Inside Literary Prize Award Ceremony Special Guest and 2024 Inside Literary Prize judge.
A collaboration between Freedom Reads, the Center for Justice Innovation, the National Book Foundation, and Interabang Books co-owner Lori Feathers, the Inside Literary Prize gives currently incarcerated people across six states the opportunity to leave their mark on the cultural conversation by selecting a winner among four recent books. After visits to each prison to lead discussions with incarcerated people, facilitate the voting process, and host readings with award-winning authors, the jurors—women and men incarcerated in 12 different facilities—select their winner.
Presenting the 2025 Winner:
On July 10th, 2025, the second Inside Literary Prize was awarded to "Chain-Gang All-Stars" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah at a ceremony held at The New York Public Library.
"Books take me outside this place" — How the Inside Literary Prize Traverses Prison Walls
There is no question that this is the highest possible honor a book like this could ever receive. I take it to mean those who judged believed I was not careless or callous, that I used language in a way that felt like truth. This retroactive mandate is a gift I can never repay, but one I will forever be grateful for. I want to thank all those Inside, those who judged and those who did not. This award is dedicated to you all.”
NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH, Winner of the 2025 Inside Literary Prize for Chain-Gang All-Stars.
2025 Shortlist
Shortlist for 2025 Inside Literary Prize
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars
Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
Paul Harding, This Other Eden
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
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.”
COURTNEY BRYAN, Chief Executive Officer, Center for Justice Innovation
2024 Prize
On August 1, 2024, the inaugural Inside Literary Prize was awarded to South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry at a moving event held at the New York Public Library.
The books nominated for the Prize—all National Book Award-honored books—were selected by a committee of incarcerated people, writers, and librarians with the Department of Corrections.
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 begins with a book.”
REGINALD DWAYNE BETTS, Founder and CEO: Freedom Reads
