John J. Lennon was born and raised in New York City. He used drugs, sold drugs, toted guns and eventually shot another man to death. He is in his fourteenth year of a twenty-eight-years-to-life sentence. He is currently in the Attica Correctional Facility, where he has been participating in a creative writing workshop since 2010. He also participates in a privately funded college program, from which he expects to graduate with an associate degree in 2015. He was first published in The Atlantic in August of 2013. His work has also appeared in The New York Times blog nytimes.com/ontheground, Times Union, Grapevine and The Marshall Project.
