I put the ink to the paper.
I’m Kory McClary — poet, storyteller, and journalist, writing from inside New Jersey State Prison. My work has been published by the Guardian US Prison Journalism Project, the Prison Journalism Project, and MindSite News. Everything here — the poetry, the stories, the diary, the reporting — comes from a place most people only hear about secondhand.
The short version
I’m serving a 130-year sentence on a wrongful conviction, and I made a choice about what to do with that time: I picked up the pen. Writing became my purpose and my protest — a way to tell the truth about life inside, to fight for the men beside me, and to reach the people I love beyond these walls. This site is where all of it lives.
My books
Two books are out now — For Poetry, words from what we survived and what we still believe in; and For Fiction: It’s Amazing, the first book of the fiction world that starts with The Play.
Start with my best
My story: Midlife Crisis, Dear Diary, and Life In This Joint
The journalism: 53 Years of Standing on Business
The poetry readers love most: I’m Listening, Ego, and Diamonds on the Bluff
The fiction: The Play — CHAPTER IV
The latest
- Pulitzer Prize Chasing Revolutionary
- Midlife Crisis
- 53 Years of Standing on Business: The Inmate Legal Association’s Fight for Justice
- Dear Diary #12
- Dreaming
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