Freedom Reads Brings Inside Literary Prize to Connecticut Prisons
National non-profit Freedom Reads facilitates Inside Literary Prize book discussions, voting, and author events at Cybulski and Carl Robinson Correctional Institutions
The national non-profit Freedom Reads facilitated Inside Literary Prize book discussions, voting, and author readings for the second annual Inside Literary Prize at Cybulski Correctional Institution and Carl Robinson Correctional Institution this week.
Launched in 2023 by Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation, and the Center for Justice Innovation with support from Lori Feathers, the Inside Literary Prize is the first-ever US-based literary prize awarded exclusively by currently incarcerated people. 25 incarcerated readers at both Cybulski and Carl Robinson Correctional Institutions are serving as judges for the 2025 Prize, casting their ballots this week for one of this year’s four shortlisted books – Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, This Other Eden by Paul Harding, On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer, and Blackouts by Justin Torres. The winner of the 2025 Prize will be announced this July.
As part of the Inside Literary Prize events, poet Randall Horton joined Freedom Reads inside Cybulski and Carl Robinson Correctional Institutions to give a poetry reading and book signing. The Freedom Reads team completed stop one of the Inside Literary Prize tour in Illinois earlier this month, and will be visiting prisons across four more states and territories this spring to bring the Inside Literary Prize to all 300 incarcerated judges. The team will be back in Connecticut later this spring to bring the Prize to Cheshire and York Correctional Institutions.
“Freedom Reads was born in Connecticut, and we are always excited to show up for our community Inside there,” said Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts. “The Inside Literary Prize is about more than a celebration of books – it's about sparking community and conversation around great literature and honoring the insights readers Inside bring to our national literary discourse. We are grateful to the Connecticut Department of Correction for their partnership in this year’s Inside Literary Prize.”
“Reading is the foundation for all knowledge and we are so thankful to Freedom Reads for their efforts to increase access to literature for the incarcerated population,” said Connecticut Department of Correction’s Director of Programs and Treatment Eulalia Garcia. “Furthermore, having incarcerated individuals determine who the winner of a literary prize will be, illustrates that their voices and opinions matter and are being heard.”
About the Inside Literary Prize:
In 2023, Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation, and the Center for Justice Innovation, with support from literary podcaster Lori Feathers, announced the launch of the Inside Literary Prize, the first-ever US-based literary prize awarded exclusively by currently incarcerated people. The Prize is awarded each year to one of four shortlisted books by a jury of 300 incarcerated readers from prisons across the nation. This initiative seeks to honor the insights incarcerated readers add to cultural conversations and expand access to our country’s most thought-provoking literature for people who are incarcerated.