Announcements

John J. Lennon was named a finalist in the Review and Criticism category for the American Society of Magazine Editor’s 2024 National Magazine Awards for his review of “Peddling Darkness,” published in The New York Review of Books. Read the full story at ASME.

John J. Lennon is one of 20 writers selected to join the the inaugural cohort of Haymarket Books and the Mellon Foundation’s newly established Writing Freedom Fellowship.

John J. Lennon was selected to join the fourth cohort of Galaxy Gives' Galaxy Leader Fellowship Program. Galaxy Gives is the philanthropic entity of the Mike and Sukey Novogratz Family.

John J. Lennon joins Bill Keller, asha bandale, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Lawrence Bartley and 5 others as members of Prison Journalism Project’s inaugural Board of Advisors. Read the full story at Prison Journalism Project.

Here is a portrait of John J. Lennon drawn by Erik Refvik, a neighbor of John who lives a couple cells down from him. It’s an amazing piece featuring John surrounded by the publications he has been featured in. John wanted to add about the piece: One of my goals is for my talented prison…

John J. Lennon’s essay “This Place Is Crazy” for Esquire has been included in the 2019 Best American Magazine Writing anthology. The essay was nominated for a 2019 National Magazine Award. The book is available from Amazon or Columbia University Press.

John J. Lennon’s name is added to Esquire‘s masthead as contributing editor. You can read a collection of his stories for Esquire here.

John J. Lennon, currently incarcerated, earned his honorable mention thanks to “stunning, big-picture” prison reporting from inside the system. He was awarded for three stories.

Jay Fielden, who announced his departure as Esquire’s Editor-in-Chief a week later, visits John J. Lennon at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York.

John’s essay “This Place Is Crazy” (Esquire, June 5, 2018) was one of seven finalists for the 2019 National Magazine Awards Feature Writing category, which honors original, stylish storytelling.