Writers Development Program

The Writers Development Program, founded and run by Christopher Blackwell and Deborah Zalesne as part of Empowerment Avenue, involves small writing groups of aspiring incarcerated journalists who share their work with each other and with an experienced incarcerated writer and mentor, and eventually with outside volunteers. In the inaugural model in Washington State, both the inside mentor (Christopher) and the outside mentor (Deborah), as well as a number of outside volunteers, work with writers to help them publish in mainstream media outlets nationally.

The women’s group, our second writing group, includes an inside mentor, Kwaneta Harris, who has become a successful journalist from the confines of solitary confinement, where she lived for the past eight years. She is currently mentoring two writers at her facility in Texas.

Working in this group model, the writers all seek to draw attention to the struggles impacted communities face in prisons around the country. As our first inside mentor, Chris is uniquely situated as an established incarcerated writer and journalist himself, to mentor other incarcerated writers to help them become journalists. Chris meets with the writers face-to-face several times a week, and works on story ideas, writing, and editing. Chris's role ranges from editor to counselor, helping writers face their pasts, address harms head on, and create a name for themselves. The idea of an inside mentor came naturally to Chris, who understands that good writing requires vulnerability.

For these men, effective writing often requires opening up about their former lives, their crimes, and the sometimes-shameful acts they have done or in some cases have been done to them, in ways that might require the ear of someone similarly situated. For most of the men, journalism has become a full-time job and Chris is their supervisor.

Kwaneta, our second inside mentor, does much of the same type of work as Chris. Since this cohort of writers faces barriers in meeting face-to-face, they create creative ways to communicate, with Kwaneta typically giving writing prompts and direction to the writers through fishing (passing notes using a string) or through the volunteers.

On the outside, Deborah coordinates a group of about fifteen volunteer editors who help with all aspects of the publication process and teach the tricks of the trade. Outside volunteers are in community with the writers, meeting by phone and/or e-messaging regularly. When a volunteer takes on a piece, they coordinate everything from beginning to end, including discussing topic ideas, doing research and editing, reaching out to publications to pitch pieces, and serving as a go-between with editors by negotiating compensation and coordinating contracts and payment with the writer's power of attorney.

In the first two years of the program, the first six writers supported by this model published 117 stories and collectively earned over $40,000. Three fellowships were awarded to writers: Jonathan Kirkpatrick won a Filter Fellowship; Raymond Williams won a Marvel Cooke Fellowship; and Aaron Olson won a Type Investigations Fellowship.