Learning to Be Openly Gay in Prison, to Anyone Who Asks (Except PREA)
Tony Vick reflects on coming out in prison, the threat of coercion, and why PREA’s classifications still make openness feel unsafe.
The archive
Words with
a long reach.
Short dispatches, essays, and published work about captivity, identity, release, memory, and the work of becoming free.
04 stories2021—now
Being released after 38 years
A man leaves prison after 38 years carrying only his Bible—and uncertainty about what comes next.
Christmas Morning
A Christmas-morning phone call becomes a quiet ritual of remembrance for family lost during 25 years in prison.
Beyond Incarceration
A reflection on reconciliation, redemption, forgiveness, and the treatment of people behind bars.