Early this year, we received the amazing news that our proposed panel “Writing around/against the Carceral Apparatus” was accepted at the prestigious NonfictioNOW Conference at Notre Dame University - now we need your help! We presented a panel at the International Non-FictioNOW Conference in New Zealand during COVID-19. Even by Zoom at an odd hour, it was exhilarating to be involved, hear other writers, choose panels of interest, and speak with a few attendees. Now, we have received an excellent opportunity to present in person at Notre Dame in South Bend. We will share that our workshop model includes check-ins, which provide an opportunity to personalize the experience for each individual within the group, allowing for better understanding, connection, and improved collaboration on collective or own projects. Our family group is close but without surplus funds.  

Most of NonfictioNOW’s panelists are affiliated with academic institutions who pay their expenses. We are the institution with which our panelists Carolina Soto, Khadira Savage, K. Michael Williams, and John Proctor are affiliated, but unlike academic institutions, we don’t have an endowment or a budget surplus for conferences. Fortunately, we have you!

To give a better idea of our panel discussion, here is the Panel Description and Statement of Merit:

Composed of writers who have been directly or indirectly impacted by the punishment apparatus, including members of Re/Creation, Freedom Agenda, and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, this panel will discuss writing and storytelling issues that are especially relevant for people who’ve experienced incarceration either from within the walls or as loved ones of people with this experience. The panel participants will engage in discussion with each other and the audience on how they’ve used nonfiction writing as a tool for self-discovery, the writing workshop model to achieve collective empowerment, and the writing prompt as an artistic form. Two other focal points will be the challenges of breaking into the publishing industry as impacted writers and building organisms of resistance that utilize modes unique to written linguistic expression.

Educational programming is known to reduce recidivism rates from people who’ve experienced incarceration by almost 50%, but for people who are impacted by criminal punishment and incarceration, writing has particular benefits and uses. Writing—even (or perhaps especially) nonfiction—is a mode many people use to go outside their lived realities, often to remake those realities, and writing workshops are frequently places for building collective empowerment. Many of the fissures forming in the great walls of the modern prison-industrial complex have been due to a shift in some circles of criminal justice toward holistic restorative justice models. Nonfiction writing workshops are increasingly becoming part of these holistic models, finding use at every stage of American justice, from learning about self-advocacy while awaiting trial, to restorative therapy while serving a longer-term sentence, to recovery workshops upon re-entry and even platforms for eventual publication.

Bios of Re/Creation panelists

K. Michael Williams is a founding member of the Re/Creation writers’ collective and is a fixture at their workshops. Semi-retired, he continues to operate as a freelance writer part-time and is currently the editor for reslashcreation.com. He's published thousands of nonfiction articles, short stories, and ebooks. 

Carolina Soto is a seasoned painter and visual artist with a long history of social justice and advocacy work. Her written work illustrates her capacity for empathy for people with whom she shared time inside. She now splits her time between living in New York City and the Dominican Republic.

Khadira Sunni Savage is a member of Freedom Agenda and the Re/Creation writing workshops. Freelancing as a Project Manager and Digital Media Assistant, Khadira uses her own story as a muse, blogging, writing books/music/poetry while building curricula to coach youth who have been directly impacted by incarceration.