South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry (Ecco) has won the inaugural Inside Literary Prize, the first U.S. literary prize judged exclusively by incarcerated people and sponsored by Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation, the Center for Justice Innovation, and Lori Feathers, co-owner of Interabang Books, Dallas, Tex.
The shortlist was chosen from the 2022 National Book Awards finalists. Incarcerated people from 12 prisons in six states--Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, and North Dakota--were sent the books to read and consider. Freedom Reads led an Inside Literary Prize tour, where representatives from the sponsoring organizations visited the 12 prisons and held conversations with readers inside who then each voted for their choice to win the prize.
The shortlist:
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (NBA fiction winner)
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai (NBA fiction finalist)
Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves (NBA poetry finalist)
(South to America was the NBA nonfiction winner)
Perry said, "In this honor, I renew my sense of responsibility to the millions of people incarcerated and under state supervision. Not as a matter of charity, but rather out of the deepest respect for the insight that comes from seeing society from the corners that it keeps hidden. And for the wisdom of those whom it keeps out of view. But most of all out of care for those in the grasp of confinement. I think this prize is most of all a recognition of readers and may this recognition of the intellectual life that exists behind bars extend much further... God bless the organizers who believe in freedom. And, to the people inside, please know when I say 'we' and when I refer to 'my people,' I mean you too."
In addition to a hand-crafted, natural wood trophy, Perry was awarded $4,860. This amount, as explained by author and Freedom Reads founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts, represents five years of work at 54-cents-per-hour, the wage earned by Betts when he was incarcerated and worked in the prison library.