Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah has won the 2025 Inside Literary Prize, an award judged by incarcerated readers, for his novel Chain-Gang All-Stars.
Adjei-Brenyah’s dystopian novel, published in 2023 by Pantheon, tells the story of two incarcerated women who are forced to compete as gladiators for their freedom in a series of fights to the death. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Imagine The Hunger Games refashioned into a rowdy, profane, and indignant blues shout at full blast.” The book was a finalist for the National Book Award and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal.
The Inside Literary Prize was voted on by 300 incarcerated people in six states and territories across the U.S. One judge, identified only by his first name, Rolando, said of the winning book, “I love it because it literally transports you into another world. And not only that, but you get to see the opinions and the ideas of other people, especially the author. And for me, it expands my mind.”
Adjei-Brenyah said, “There is no question that this is the highest possible honor a book like this could ever receive. I take it to mean those who judged believed I was not careless or callous, that I use language in a way that felt like truth. This retroactive mandate is a gift I can never repay, but one I will forever be grateful for.”
The other finalists for the prize were This Other Eden by Paul Harding; On a Woman’s Madness, written by Astrid Roemer and translated by Lucy Scott; and Blackouts by Justin Torres.
The Inside Literary Prize was established last year by the nonprofit organization Freedom Reads with the National Book Foundation, the Center for Justice Innovation, and bookseller Lori Feathers. The first award went to Imani Perry for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
