July 11, 2025, 12:50pm

At a ceremony on Thursday night time, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Chain-Gang All-Stars was awarded the second annual Inside Literary Prize, the first-ever US-based literary award to be judged by presently incarcerated folks. Readers from 15 prisons throughout 6 states and territories chosen Adjei-Brenyah’s novel from a shortlist of 4.

“There isn’t a query that that is the best doable honor a e-book like this might ever obtain,” mentioned Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, in an announcement. “I take it to imply those that judged believed I used to be not careless or callous, that I used language in a method that felt like fact. This retroactive mandate is a present I can by no means repay, however one I’ll endlessly be glad about. I need to thank all these Inside, those that judged and people who didn’t. This award is devoted to you all.”

The Inside Prize is organized by Freedom Reads, in collaboration with the Nationwide Guide Basis, the Heart for Justice Innovation, and Interabang Books co-owner Lori Feathers.