March 25, 2025, 12:30pm

In 2024, Haymarket Books, together with the Mellon Basis, launched a brand new fellowship aimed toward supporting and uplifting writers impacted by the prison authorized system: The Writing Freedom Fellowship. At the moment, they’ve introduced their second annual cohort of fellows, twenty writers whose work explores “themes starting from grief and habit to survivorship, language, and restore.” The fellowship, which incorporates skilled assist, schooling, and an award, is “designed to encourage group amongst writers, to foster their artistic practices, and to convey their important voices and views to broader audiences.”

“We couldn’t have completely imagined all that might develop from this initiative,” mentioned Haymarket Books Program Supervisor Jyothi Natarajan in an announcement. “We’ve been capable of witness connections unfold that proceed to strengthen our dedication to supporting writers who’ve been touched by the carceral system. We’re thrilled by the continuation of this venture and the renewal of funding, which is able to permit us to increase assist to 100 writers throughout 5 years.”

The 2025 Writing Freedom Fellows had been chosen by panel comprised of Chris Abani, Keri Blakinger, Deesha Philyaw, Patricia Smith, and Javier Zamora. Congratulations to all of the 2025 fellows:

Ra Avis (she/her) is a memoirist who in her work navigates the deeply private intersections of grief, incarceration, and incapacity. She writes usually at Rarasaur.com. Avis, based mostly in California, is at present at work on Kites Library, an incarceration-centered zine archive.

B Batchelor (he/him) is a poet and artist based mostly in Minnesota. His poetry has appeared within the Nation, Columbia Journal, and Duende. He has gained a number of awards from PEN America and was a 2022 finalist for the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry. His chapbook, Disfigured Hours, is forthcoming from Rain Mild Press in 2025.

Jeremiah Bourgeois (he/him) is a nonfiction and authorized author whose work focuses on sentencing and corrections. He authored The Extraordinary Abnormal Prisoner: Essays From Inside America’s Carceral State. His scholarship has appeared within the American Journal of Legal Regulation and the Seattle Journal for Social Justice.

Dante Clark (he/they) is a poet and performer from the Bronx, NY. Clark explores, by writing poems, the scope and sound of phrases that inform, delight, and incite towards liberation. He’s at present a Goldwater Fellow at New York College’s Lillian Vernon Inventive Writers Home.

Ajanaé Dawkins (she/her) is a poet, conceptual artist, and theologian. Her work has appeared in Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, the Rumpus, and Prairie Schooner, amongst others. Her chapbook, BLOOD-FLEX, is forthcoming. Dawkins cohosts the VS Podcast on the Poetry Basis. She is writing a manuscript exploring the 1990’s disappearance of her nice aunt.

Curtis Dawkins (he/him) is the creator of the critically-acclaimed assortment of quick tales The Graybar Lodge (2017). He’s at present at work on a novel.

Emile Suotonye DeWeaver (he/him) is a previously incarcerated activist and author, and the creator of Ghost within the Legal Justice Machine (2025). He’s a 2022 Soros Justice fellow, a Middle for Simply Journalism fellow, and a 2021 Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize winner. His work has been printed extensively, together with within the San Francisco Chronicle, Colorlines, and Truthout.

Michael Fischer (he/him) is a nonfiction author and storyteller. In his writing he interrogates the methods by which ecological justice can play a job in dismantling the carceral state. Fischer works on the Middle for Justice & Financial Development. His writing seems within the New York Occasions, the Solar journal, Lit Hub, Guernica, Orion, and elsewhere.

Joe Garcia (he/him) at present lives in Los Angeles, the place he works as a reporter for the nonprofit information group CalMatters. His work has been printed within the Sacramento Bee, Alta Journal, MIT Expertise Evaluation, Washington Submit, and the New Yorker.

torrin a. greathouse (she/they) is a transgender cripple-punk poet and essayist. She is the creator of Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, winner of the 2022 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and DEED, a 2025 Stonewall Ebook Award recipient. They train at Pacific Lutheran College’s Rainier Writing Workshop.

Elizabeth Hawes (she/her) writes prose, performs, and poetry. The recipient of a 2023 Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize with the Truthout Middle for Grassroots Journalism and a number of PEN America Writing Awards, her latest work will be present in Defector, Lux, Prism, black lipstick, The Rumpus, and Santa Clara Evaluation.

Faylita Hicks (they/them) is the creator of A Map of My Need (2024) and HoodWitch (2019). Based mostly in Chicago, they’re at present engaged on a debut memoir-in-essays about their incarceration, A Physique of Wild Mild: The Fall and Rise of An American Poet (2026). Hicks is a Proper of Return fellow and the winner of the 2020 Sappho Poetry Award.

Monterica Sadé Neil (she/her) obtained her MFA from Louisiana State College. She’s been a Tin Home Scholar and a Philip Roth Author-in-Residence at Bucknell College. Her writing has appeared within the Offing, the nonprofit information group MLK50: Justice By means of Journalism, and extra. She’s at present at work on a memoir.

Geneva Phillips (she/her) is a author of poetry, fiction, and artistic nonfiction. Raised and incarcerated in Oklahoma, she is the creator of the memoir Disappearing in Glimpses. Her writing has been honored and included in 4 printed PEN America Jail Writing Awards anthologies.

Janel Pineda (she/her) is a U.S. Salvadoran poet and the creator of Lineage of Rain (2021). Pineda is at present pursuing a PhD at UCLA, the place her analysis explores the liberatory capacities of poetry for Central Individuals.

Julie Poole (she/her) is a author based mostly in Austin. She has printed two books of poetry, Vibrant Specimen and Beautiful Freak. Her essays and journalism will be discovered within the Texas Observer, Texas Month-to-month, Bon Appétit, HuffPost, the Baffler, Slate, and the Nation. She is at present engaged on a memoir.

Nicole Shawan Junior (they/she) is a artistic nonfiction and speculative fiction author. They’re a Tin Home “Debut Writer Over 40” residency recipient, Hedgebrook writer-in-residence, Lambda Literary Rising Queer Voice, New York Basis for the Arts Geri Ashur Fellow, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Convention contributing author.

Carla J. Simmons (she/her) is a artistic nonfiction author who has been incarcerated within the American South since 2004. She critically examines the roles of imperialism, capitalism, racism, poverty, and sophistication within the carceral system. Her work has been featured in Lux, Prism, and The Enchantment. She is at present finishing a memoir.

Jesús I. Valles (they/them) is a queer Mexican immigrant writer-performer from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua/El Paso, Texas. Their poems have been featured in Right here to Keep, Someplace We Are Human, and The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, in addition to New Republic, Tin Home, [PANK], the Slowdown podcast, and Code Swap.

Nameless (they/them) is a author of prose, poetry, and hybrid works. They’re the creator of a number of chapbooks that set up a language that’s visible and aural as a lot as it’s written. Their writing was printed within the anthology Working It: Intercourse Employees on the Work of Intercourse.