Live from San Quentin: The Imprisoned Voice

In collaboration with Pollen Initiative, Clio's is honored to present The Imprisoned Voice, a recurring series of Friday-night conversations with poets, fiction and creative non-fiction writers, scholars, and philosophers who produce their work exclusively from within American prisons. All conversations will occur live and in real time via phone.

The series continues on Friday, October 2nd with Kevin D. Sawyer, a long-time member of the Society of Professional Journalists and a writer of news articles, essays, short stories, memoirs, poems, journals on incarceration, and many other subjects. Doors at 6:30; our conversation will begin promptly at 7pm.

This is a ticketed event, all proceeds from which will go toward supporting the sustainability and expansion of community engagement programs that support currently incarcerated writers and scholars.

Kevin D. Sawyer is the former editor-in-chief of San Quentin News. During his time as editor the newspaper received the 2025 American Penal Press Award for “Best Pr*son Newspaper.” In 2024, he received the Stillwater Award for a “Best News Story”; the California News Publishers Association’s “Community Focus Award”; and the San Quentin Film Festival’s award for “Best Documentary Film Pitch.” In 2021, the San Francisco Press Club presented him with its “Bay Journalism Award-Newspaper.” In 2019, he received an honorable mention for nonfiction from PEN America. In 2016, he received The James Aronson Award for “Exemplary Community Journalism,” and in 2014 he was on the San Quentin News team that won the Society of Professional Journalists’ “James Madison Freedom of Information Award.” Prior to incarceration, Sawyer worked 14 continuous years in the telecommunications industry at several corporations. He is an NCCER certified electrician, a trained audio engineer through The Last Mile, and a practiced guitar and piano player. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in mass communication, with a special broadcasting option, from California State University Hayward, and a paralegal/legal assistant diploma from Blackstone Career Institute. In April 2023, he was accepted, and offered admission, to the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

Pollen Initiative is committed to amplifying the voices, experiences, and perspectives of incarcerated people through journalism, multimedia training, and creative expression that engages the mind and strengthens community. They believe access to information, creativity, and civic participation are essential to human dignity and rehabilitation. Through ethical journalism and transformative media practices, Pollen Initiative helps individuals develop professional skills, critical thinking, and purpose while fostering greater understanding between incarcerated communities and the public. Their work is rooted in the belief that journalism, observational and reported, has the power to humanize, contextualize, and inspire change.