Thank the Bloom: 2023 Prison Writing Awards Anthology (Prison Writing Anthology)

Thank the Bloom: 2023 PEN Prison Writing Awards Anthology is a testament to the power of this kind of community collaboration. Inspired by past lovers, current partnerships, old family dynamics, and steadfast friendships that both transcend prison walls and persevere within them, this anthology illuminates the ways in which art cannot survive without community care at its core. Using poetry, memoir, essay, fiction, and drama as their mediums, the writers featured in this anthology fight to create means of connection. And yet these themes defy genre, turning this anthology into something else entirely: a deeper exploration of self, of power, of institutionalized racism, of systemic isolation, and of the beauty that can be found in a garden bed. Featuring work from: Erik Tschekunow, B. Batchelor, Matthew A. Stoy, Joel Davis, C. Fausto Cabrebra, Robert McCracken, Ellis Acton Currer, Crystal Avilla, Peter Dunne, Fernando Rivas, Matthew Mendoza, Tomas Keen, Paul Brown, Mario Castro, Brian Beals with Peter Sanders, Emilio Fernandez, Franklin Lee, Kevin Schaeffer, Marina Bueno, Wes Lee, Andrew Suh, Geneva Phillips, Anthony Rhodd, Toussaint Daniels, David E. Babb, Joshua Peterson, Kevin Potts, Burl N. Corbett, Catherine La Fleur, Kenneth Meyers, Aaron Hill, Dontez Daniels, Rashuan Black