Writing Freedom Fellowship

A literary fellowship for system-impacted writers

Writing Freedom aims to elevate the necessary voices of poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers impacted by the carceral system.

Our Mission

The Writing Freedom Fellowship awards talented emerging and established poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers impacted by the carceral system, recognizing them for their notable and necessary writing.

Developed and administered by Haymarket Books in partnership with the Mellon Foundation, Writing Freedom aims to elevate the essential literary voices and contributions of twenty writers each year, offering them crucial support.

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Writing is one of the most ancient art forms—and everyone has a story to tell... The Writing Freedom Fellowship offers people with an incarceration experience and system-impacted individuals the social and financial capital needed to transform their words into masterpieces.

—Romarilyn Ralston

Advisory board member and Executive Director of Project Rebound

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About the Program

2025 Program Fellows

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Visit Haymarket Books

Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago. Our mission is to publish books that contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. We strive to make our books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the education and development of a critical, engaged, and internationalist Left.

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