Biography
Benjamin Frandsen (he/him) is a poet, essayist, memoirist, podcaster, and advocate whose writing explores incarceration, redemption, resilience, and empowering justice-impacted individuals. His work has been published in several PEN America prison writing anthologies, as well as in Columbia University’s exCHANGE magazine, UCLA Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, Open Campus, the Prison Journalism Project, and the Vera Institute of Justice’s “The Human Toll of Jail.” He performed his poem “To Be Heard” at the 2019 PEN World Voices Festival. His poem “Time In” was published in Iconoclast.
Frandsen is the founder and executive director of the Ben Free Project and host of the Ben Free Podcast, which amplifies the voices of formerly incarcerated people and promotes literacy and mentorship in carceral settings. The project has garnered several contracts to support creative arts programming inside California prisons. As someone with a former life sentence, he is a military veteran and a UCLA English honors graduate. After completing an MFA from San Diego State University in May 2026, Frandsen plans to enter an EdD program. He is committed to challenging negative systemic narratives and to affirming human dignity. He lives in California and is preparing his memoir, Some Mother’s Darling, for publication. He mentors emerging writers.
