NEW YORK — PEN America has announced the winners of a new award, supported by a grant from the estate of the late Madeleine L'Engle, for participants in the literary and human rights organization's Prison Writing Mentorship Program.
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The eight winners each receive $250 and a set of books chosen by their respective mentor/mentee.
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The PEN prison writing program, of which L'Engle was an early supporter, includes more than 300 mentors working with imprisoned writers. L'Engle and Rahman exchanged letters for years, reflecting on everything from religion to their personal lives and suggesting books and articles to each other.
Rahman, who died in 2015, served more than 20 years in prison for what was widely regarded as a wrongful felony murder conviction. His life sentence was commuted by then-Michigan Governor John Engler in 1992, and he later taught at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. L'Engle died in 2007.
“L’Engle was as much a recipient of Rahman’s offerings as he was hers — they were both mentors,” Caits Meissner, director of PEN America’s prison and justice writing program, said in a statement. “These four mentor/mentee pairs (or perhaps better stated in some ways as mentor/mentor pairs) showcase the best of what it means to treat those on the inside as equally human, equally meaningful, equally as capable of stirring our imaginations through the written word.”
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press