Founded in 2012, the American Prison Writing Archive contains more than 3,000 essays by people incarcerated in the U.S. Last year, the APWA was awarded a grant from the Mellon Foundation and moved from Hamilton College to the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins professor Vesla Weaver describes the purpose and potential of the collection. And Jose DiLenola shares how writing helped him make sense of his time in prison. Today, DiLenola is the Clemency Campaign Director for Release Aging People in Prison.

Search the American Prison Writing Archive. Learn how to submit work to the archive.

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