Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) fosters literary community and a devotion to art inside Minnesota correctional facilities through high-quality creative writing programming. During incarceration and throughout reentry, MPWW empowers writers, challenges stereotypes about the incarcerated population, and promotes a vision of rehabilitation and restorative justice through art. MPWW also seeks to bridge the divide between literary communities inside and outside of prison by creating platforms for their students’ work.

Founded in 2011 by Jennifer Bowen with one creative writing class at Lino Lakes Prison, Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop has grown into an organization with over 25 instructors and more than 3,000 incarcerated artists throughout the state in Minnesota. MPWW is the largest prison-based literary organization in the country. Incarcerated people are among the most underserved and underrepresented groups in artistic discourse. A major part of MPWW’s mission is to diversify and enhance that discourse by amplifying their voices. At the same time, MPWW recognizes that incarcerated people are not monolithic, and aims to celebrate their diversity. The incarcerated writers MPWW serves work in all literary forms, including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, spoken word, and children’s book writing. Many work across these genres in innovative and exciting ways. While the writers MPWW works with do write poignantly and painfully about the experience of incarceration, they write no less compellingly about family, love, violence, race, gender, class, sexuality, and the natural world.

Jerome Foundation supports Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop’s Mentor Program. Pairing early career Minnesota-based incarcerated writers with an experienced writer or editor outside of prison, this mentorship program offers monthly exchanges of creative work and personalized feedback. Mentors also provide personalized reading recommendations and share professional development opportunities—such as calls for submission—with writers, introduce them to other relevant writing, provide professional advice, and help them to expand their skill sets to better realize their specific artistic projects. Writers in the program receive a financial contribution to an annual fund they can use for purchasing books, writing supplies or submission fees. Mentors receive an annual stipend and the opportunity to connect with another artist and build a community of writers. MPWW’s Mentor Program is administered by Ari Tilson.