09/04/2026
Last night, we celebrated the third annual Inside Literary Prize with a ceremony at The New York Public Library, honoring the power of literature and bringing those on the Inside to the forefront of cultural conversations.
Thank you to all the guests who attended, including our 2026 Inside Literary Prize winner Bothayna Al-Essa (Bothayna Alessa), dozens of the 2026 judges who joined via Zoom from prisons across the country, 2025 Inside Literary Prize judge Love Hodge, Ilan Stavans of Restless Books, as well as leaders from Freedom Reads, , Center for Justice Innovation, and Lori Feathers.
None of this would be possible without the hundreds of judges on the Inside across this year’s six states, and we thank each of them for their part in this groundbreaking prize.
As Bothayna Alessa said, “In rooms designed for punishment you did the freest thing a person can do: you read, you argued, you formed your own judgement, and you declared it. My novel is a dystopia and as a dystopia the walls always win. But you have defeated the walls—you have surpassed my imagination.”
