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The Covid Collection, a one-time literary journal publication, seeks compelling prose, poetry and art from incarcerated writers residing in a state or federal facility. Submissions should include work that was created during the quarantine period. It does not have to relate to Covid-19 but the submission should reflect the unique experience going on inside your carceral setting. Fiction, non-fiction, personal essays, poems, drawings encouraged. One submission per person. For poetry, three poems or less with a maximum of 1500 words. Prose, 1500-word limit. Shorter pieces encouraged. Submissions do not have to be typed but must be legible. Include your full name, and DOC number so we can contact you. Submissions may be done anonymously, with a pen name, first name only or full name. Please include a few lines about yourself as your bio.
Deadline September 15 (extended from July 15)
Send to Attn: Covid Collection, c/o Exchange for Change 2103 Coral Way 2nd Floor Miami, FL. 33145
Reliable information about the health conditions that confined people are experiencing in the face of Covid-19 is in very short supply. People outside need to hear from the most vital witnesses to current confinement practices. The Prison Journalism Project (PJP) is asking anyone who lives or works in jails or prisons to write about their experience, for posting on the PJP site, which will be dedicated to Covid-19 reports from inside. We’re open to reports of facts and conditions, critical assessments of practices, eulogies for the dead, expressions of distress, historical assessments, etc. We will also accept various genres: essays, fiction, poems, interviews, etc. We ask that submissions draw on the direct knowledge of authors, avoiding rumor, and that authors respect the privacy wishes of others whenever these are clear.
Word limit: 1,500 words
Our policy is to accept, edit and post—in whole or excerpts—all the testimony we receive unless it is judged to place its authors or others at risk.
Send to both Prison Journalism Project:
Via E-mail/JPay: prisonjourn@psu.edu
Via postal mail: Prison Journalism Project, 2093 Philadelphia Pike #105, Claymont, DE 19703
Please include your contact information so that we can reach you.
Writers can publish under first names only, if requested. Please include a short, 2-3 sentence biographical note to accompany your work (with or without specific identifying information).
For long-term archiving of any non-fiction work (no fiction), also write to The American Prison Writing Archive: APWA, 198 College Hill Road, Clinton NY 13323-1218.
Mourning Our Losses is a crowd-sourced memorial to honor the lives of people who died in prisons, jails, and immigration detention facilities in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. We remember the lives of people who died from exposure to abominable public health conditions, as residents and as employees.
Mourning Our Losses seeks to restore dignity to the faces and stories behind the statistics of death and illness from behind bars. We believe that a loss of any human life warrants mourning. We are united in our effort to honor our fallen brothers and sisters by telling their stories. We offer a platform for grief, healing, community, and reflection for all those touched by this preventable tragedy.
We welcome memorials by those who knew and loved someone who died due to COVID-19 while living or working behind bars. We accept written memorials of any kind, as well as photographs, artwork, letters, or other items you might have that honor the memory of your loved one. To submit online, or for instructions for submitting by mail, please visit our submission page.
The COVID-19 Prison Education Archive Project invites all individuals in the field of higher education in prison to participate in documenting their experiences related to COVID-19. We invite all students, alumni, and their families, faculty, program coordinators, prison staff members, and anyone else impacted by the field of higher education in prison to help document the perspectives of individuals in our community during this pandemic, with the ambition of reflecting the wide-range of experiences in this time, in hope of learning from each other, and in an effort to connect our community in a time when we find ourselves physically distant. Our wish is that collecting these materials can bring a bit of solace and understanding in this transformative moment - solace and understanding for ourselves as well as future generations that may be able to make further progress in higher education and criminal justice by looking to our experiences.
We accept submissions of any length, typed or handwritten, including:
Submissions may be e-mailed to covid19archive@hudsonlink.org or mailed to: COVID-19 Archive, 23 State Street, Ossining, New York 10562
Lives on the Line created a survey for people with loved ones behind bars to expose the truth about what’s really happening inside prisons, jails, and detention centers by taking this national survey for people with incarcerated loved ones today.
Education Justice Project COVID-19 Reentry Guides (in English and Spanish)
Release During COVID-19: What You Need to Know
Liberación durante COVID-19: Lo que necisitas saber
A message from EJP: Feel free to share any of the guides or their content, including changing it to fit your organization's goals. We only ask that you recognize the Education Justice Project's Reentry Guide Initiative
The Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN) is seeking your help to reach college graduates from your programs and alumni in your networks and/or reentry programs to invite them to join FICGN. If you are interested in sharing this opportunity with your students and graduates please contact tblount@ficgn.org for more information.
The Gulf Stream Summer Contest runs annually to unearth exciting new works of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. It offers emerging writers a great opportunity to have their work read by published poets and authors. The contest is open now and runs until August 30, 2020.
News Inside is The Marshall Project's print publication, which is distributed in hundreds of prisons and jails across the United States. To place an order, complete theNews Inside registration form. For more information, contact News Inside at newsinside@themarshallproject.org. To read coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and/or contribute, visit the News Inside website.
