Georgia State Students, Incarcerated Writers Create Literary Journal Together

ATLANTA  —  A project at Georgia State University is giving incarcerated people new opportunities to express themselves and connect with those outside of the prison system through a literary journal.

The project, Beyond Bars: A Journal of Literature and Art, was established in 2023 through a Mellon Grant and will span three years, resulting in six issues of the journal featuring poetry, artwork and prose by incarcerated people and others who have been affected by the prison system.

“There was this need to enable incarcerated writers to publish their work and to share it amongst a wider community,” said Megan Sexton, a principal academic professional in the English Department and co-principal investigator on the project.

Beyond Bars is a collaboration among Georgia State students and professors, incarcerated writers at Phillips State Prison in Gwinnett County and the nonprofit organization Common Good Atlanta. Four Georgia State Ph.D. students work as editors alongside three Phillips State editors to vet and compile a high-quality journal from the work they have received.

“As far as I understand, we are unique in our blended editorial staff, having editors who are both inside and outside,” said principal investigator Beth Gylys, a Distinguished University Professor in the English Department.

Drew Jordan, one of the four Ph.D. student editors, said the experience has been rewarding for both the GSU students and the incarcerated editors.

“The experience of working with the editors at Phillips State has been fantastic. They all bring unique insights into the process, and the time we get to spend with them every couple of weeks is really special,” Jordan said. “I think it provides them a safe space where they can talk about what’s going on in their lives or their writing. We can be there to take their work seriously.”

Another of the Ph.D. students, Emily Lake Hansen, became involved with Beyond Bars due to personal experience within her family.

“I saw up close how systems work against people … so I wanted an opportunity to be a part of offering any kind of kindness to people in that system. I think it’s really important to create a positive space in a place where that doesn’t really exist,” Lake Hansen said.

Another aspect that makes Beyond Bars so unique is the amount of control that the incarcerated editors have over the journal.

“This is not us curating. These are folks whose lives are deeply impacted by the carceral (prison) system. They are the ones making these choices. We’re giving as much agency as we can possibly give to people who have lost their agency,” Lake Hansen added.

The graduate students and incarcerated editors’ collaboration on the project has been overwhelmingly positive, thanks to the support of the Georgia Department of Corrections.

“The two sets of editors - GSU creative writing graduate students and incarcerated students - discover writing insights from each other, provide mutual inspiration, and encourage each other in the crafts of writing and editing, gaining scholarly and professional skills by working together,” said Gylys. “Working across the borders of prison walls inspires and enriches everyone who has been involved.”

Though the work on Beyond Bars initially started in Georgia, the project has gone nationwide, receiving submissions from family members of incarcerated people, people who were formerly incarcerated and even people who work in the prison system.

“We’ve had submissions from California, New Mexico, Arizona, New York and Pennsylvania, so it’s really all over the country,” Jordan said.

The first issue of the Beyond Bars journal is scheduled to be published in May, and plans are in place to create a website featuring some of the art included in the first issue. The group is also working on offering subscriptions to the journal.

—By Katherine Duplessis