OUR MISSION ✵
WORDS BEYOND BARS: Art THAT TRANSCENDS
The Words Beyond Bars Project strives to push incarcerated writers to the forefront by uplifting the writing of writers who are currently or have been previously incarcerated in federal prisons. The United States has the sixth-largest incarceration rate in the world, at a staggering 531 incarcerated people per 100,000. Despite the fact that 64% of American adults₁ have experienced family incarceration, stigma and misinformation plague far too many conversations surrounding incarceration and the American prison industrial complex.
As a project, we aim to ensure that stories of these systems are shared by those who have lived through them. Incarcerated people are not a monolith, and many of them, like us, seek to find greater understanding of our world in art. We have worked to compile an anthology of talented incarcerated and previously incarcerated writers, whose works vary from poetry to fiction to creative nonfiction. By viewing these works, we challenge readers to see through the bars, stigma, and any personal or societal inhibitions. We hope you see these works for what they are: art that transcends.
MASTHEAD ✵
Claire Zhou is a student currently residing in Suzhou, China. Her poetry has recently appeared in Notre Dame Review, Gulf Coast, The Spotlong Review & Puerto del Sol. She hopes you enjoy reading Words Beyond Bars!
Claire Daylo is a Filipina-American writer from Washington state. Her fiction appears in Maudlin House and has been recognized by GASHER and DePaul University.
Anouk Shin is a writer from St. Paul, Minnesota. Her writing has been featured in The Vindex and Bowseat, and has been recognized by the John Locke Essay Competition, the John F. Kennedy Foundation, and National History Day. She is the founder of Temporal Lobe Literary, and in her free time, she likes romanticizing the day to day.
Aria Shum is a writer from Chicago. She currently studies violin performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Outside of music and writing, she enjoys exploring rooftops at three in the morning and going on hundred-mile drives. More of her work can be found on aria-shum.carrd.co.
Giljoon Lee was born in South Korea; he currently lives in California. He is the founder and editor of MEARI. He is unimportant.
Audrey Xi is a poet and prose-writer from Dublin, California. Her writing, art, and design have been supported or recognized by the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, and various publications. She currently serves as an editor for her school yearbook, Gaela Mor, and VP of Public Relations for her local Toastmaster for Youth Club and community nonprofit Global Leadership Initiatives for Youth.
