Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop

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Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop

We teach creative writing in prisons throughout the state of Minnesota. BTW: not lip-service.”

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) extends Minnesota’s vibrant literary community to incarcerated men and women. Through high-quality creative writing classes, a one-to-one mail mentor program, and related programming, MPWW fosters literary community and a devotion to art inside of Minnesota’s state prisons. MPWW was founded in 2011 when Jennifer Bowen taught a creative writing class to ten

men at Lino Lakes Prison. Since then, we’ve grown into one of the largest and most successful arts-in-corrections organizations in the country. Our 85 instructors and mentors have served over 1,500 students in all of the state’s adult facilities. Courses are taught by members of our instructor pool, a group of experienced and accomplished writers and teachers. Our students learn to tell their own stories in their own voices, a practice they tell us is profoundly rehabilitative:

“For the first time, I feel like a citizen of the larger world.”
“Thank you for helping me find the poet in me.”
“This class probably saved my life.

04/27/2026

🎉 Saturday, May 9th starting at 6PM (social hour) and reading & conversation at 7PM, our friends will be officially launching the new indie press in Minneapolis at , with two debut chapbook collections by B and Kennedy!

There will be catered refreshments and beverages, as well as some stunning swag and books, so please join LKE for a night to remember!

This is a free, public event and all are welcome. Please join Lost Kite Editions and friends welcoming this exciting new press into the literary landscape.

04/25/2026

🌟 Welcome back, poet and professor Matt Rasmussen, our longtime friend and a distinguished visiting writer who taught class and worked one-on-one with several students at Stillwater prison long before the pandemic.

We are thrilled to have Matt back, this time teaching “The Essential Poet’s Glossary,” a 12-week course that focuses on learning core poetry techniques through contemporary poetry to an inspired classroom of budding poets at Faribault prison.

P.S. Matt is also an amazing artist and drew this self-portrait. He is working on a series that fuses poetry with humorous illustrations.

04/24/2026

What’s most important to us is the agency, confidence, and purpose that creative writing and the community built around writing offers our students. Writing may be a solitary act, but it takes a village to be a writer.

Here is another quote from one of our students from a class at Stillwater prison.

Thank you to our students, instructors, mentors, and everyone who supports us. ❤️

04/18/2026

📝 Our spring classes across Minnesota prisons are underway, but we wanted to share some very meaningful thoughts and reflections from our incredible students.

So please stay tuned as we’ll be sharing their voices beyond walls and bars.

Thank you to everyone in our communities for uplifting and amplifying our students’ voices, and to those who write with such care and energy. ❤️

04/15/2026

🌟 We are thrilled to introduce you to some of our newest teachers joining or returning to our MPWW village in the coming weeks!

Please meet the wonderful Art Coulson, who started teaching “Creating Stories for Young Readers” at Moose Lake prison in March.

In this much-requested class, our students are learning the craft of how to write and illustrate a picture book, and in doing so, connect with the young people they love as well as their own inner child.

Welcome to MPWW, Art, and thank you for sharing your wisdom and love of picture books with our amazing students and doing the long roundtrip drive to make this possible. ❤️

04/14/2026

🌟 Please save the date: Tuesday, May 5th at 7PM for the next installment of ’s ✨BETTER THINGS✨ at featuring another spectacular lineup of writers: Jennifer Landretti, .waz.pali, Andre Anderson, Armand McCoy, and Sabrin Nur, hosted by and ❤️❣️

The 5X5 reading will be followed by a brief intermission then an open mic period, which is on a first come, first served basis. ASL interpretation will be available. This is a free, public event, all are welcome. There will be light refreshments served, and masks are required at Moon Palace Books.

We hope to see you there! 🎉

04/09/2026

🌟 We couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that our own Kennedy Amenya Gisege, a longtime MPWW writer, artist, father, long-distance runner, educator, and mentor to many on the inside, was named as one of the twenty Writing Freedom Fellows!!! All the congratulations to Kennedy, the other fellows and finalists, and many thanks to the incredible selection committee.

In their third year, we are so proud that we have had members of the MPWW community represented for this major honor every year!

The 2024 inaugural Writing Freedom Fellowship, we had .f.con003 and , then in 2025, Elizabeth Hawes and B Batchelor, who writes: “Writing Freedom is recognition, and growth and community and, now, lineage. It’s the best thing to ever happen for my writing, for the marginalized and oft-silenced community I represent, and for the verdant path ahead.”

Both B and Kennedy just published their stunning chapbooks with so please get your copy at lostkite.org 📚🪁

To meet all the 2026 Fellows as well as past ones, please visit writing-freedom.org ❤️ And you can watch the 2024 and 2025 cohort readings on Haymarket’s YouTube channel.

Deepest gratitude to and everyone at Haymarket Books and the for making this possible, and for amplifying justice-impacted voices.

04/07/2026

Thank you so much to for this wonderful feature about our work and the newly launched 📚❤️❣️🪁

Please visit lostkite.org (and follow on IG) to find out more about LKE’s mission and the two inaugural titles ✨DISFIGURED HOURS✨ by B Batchelor and ✨TWENTY-ONE BIRTHDAYS✨ by Kennedy Amenya Gisege, as well as other offerings and events.

The inaugural ✨Lost Kite Editions Chapbook Prize✨ is also open for submissions, so please submit your best work! More information at lostkite.org/submissions 🌟

Thank you to everyone in our communities for making this next chapter of our collaborations possible. Please stay tuned for more “urgent and insurgent” work!

04/06/2026

🌟 ICYMI, the amazing Writing Freedom Fellows readings from March 24th and April 1st can be watched on their YouTube channel, featuring powerful readings by MPWW writers-fellows .f.con003 , Elizabeth Hawes, and B Batchelor, as well as the other remarkable writers.

Deepest gratitude to and everyone at Haymarket for making this fellowship and community possible. ❤️

03/31/2026

✨ Please join at next Tuesday, April 7th at 7PM for the next installment of ✨BETTER THINGS✨ featuring another stellar, fierce lineup of poets: Sagirah Shahid, Suzanne Locke, Isavela Lopez, Ben Westlie, and Nick Metcalf. Hosted by and the 5X5 reading will be followed by a brief intermission then an open mic period. Light refreshments will be served, and the event is free and open to the public. Masks are required at Moon Palace Books, and masks will be provided.

Please join this amazing group of creatives and spend an evening in community and poetry! ❤️

Address

Saint Paul, MN

Telephone

+16512850990

Website

http://www.mnprisonwriting.org/

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