Justice-Impacted Writers Project Fellowship For Incarcerated Aspiring Writers Launched By ‘Power Book IV: Force’ Scribes

EXCLUSIVE: The Writers Guild Foundation has teamed with the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) on the Justice-Impacted Writers Project (JIWP), a fellowship for aspiring writers currently incarcerated at Sheridan Correctional Center in Sheridan, Illinois.

The project is spearheaded by writing partners Sammy Horowitz and Adam Pasen (Power Book IV: Force). Horowitz, now a successful screenwriter, is a former Chicago gang member who was imprisoned for nearly a decade and spent several years incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center, in Crest Hill, Illinois.

The idea for the fellowship came after Horowitz and Pasen taught a screenwriting workshop last year at Stateville for NPEP. Students learned the six plot points of a feature and developed their own story markers along with a logline.

“It was surreal walking back into Stateville as a free man after being locked up there…and especially to teach. It was really a flood of emotions,” Horowitz said. “I told everyone in that room…it’s possible. You can get out and succeed. Me standing here is the proof.” Pasen added, “What amazed me the most was the passion as storytellers and the diversity of ideas.”

After he and Pasen outlined a fellowship proposal, Horowitz contacted Jennifer Lackey, Founding Director of NPEP, and Kira VandenBrande, Director of Community Programs at the Writers Guild Foundation,. to collaborate. The joint venture eventually developed into JIWP.

Under the fellowship, JIWP will work with the Illinois Department of Corrections to select ten currently incarcerated writers directly from the NPEP program, focusing on those with less than two years remaining on their sentences. They will then take part in a six-month program led by Horowitz and Pasen.

The fellowship will consist of weekly workshops (held in person or via Zoom) with the goal of guiding members to write an original pilot as a sample and pitch their projects to industry leaders upon completion. Workshops will be led by Horowitz and Pasen, with additional support from NPEP staff. In addition, each month will feature a lecture from established showrunners such as Barbie Kligman (Doc), Gary Lennon (Hightown), Matt Lopez (Sheriff Country), Robert Munic (The Cleaner), Christopher Silber (NCIS: Hawaii), and Craig Sweeny (Elementary). They will serve on the JIWP Advisory Board along with top industry executives, talent agents, and producers.

Horowitz and Pasen have written on the second and third seasons of the hit Starz Chicago crime drama Power Book IV: Force and recently sold a feature to AGC Studios. While much of their work involves crime and action, they are also passionate about carceral justice and often include themes of reform and fighting recidivism.

Horowitz is a 2024 NPEP Justice Fellow, a program which brings together the best voices and initiatives transforming how we think about crime and punishment in the U.S. Pasen is an alumnus of Northwestern and completed his MA in Creative Writing in 2008.

JIWP joins the Writers Guild Foundation’s community programs, such as the Veterans Writing Project C Fellowship and the Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program, which aim to create pathways for underserved communities to meaningfully connect with Writers Guild of America West membership and make use of their educational resources.

Eventually, Horowitz and Pasen hope to offer the fellowship annually with a twofold aim: using art to assist in reentry for inmates about to be paroled and providing access for exceptional writers within the penal system. “Authenticity and lived experience are terms that we use a lot in the industry,” Horowitz said, “and with the number of shows that involve or take place in prison this is one way to create pathways to careers and make major strides toward authentic representation.” Adds Pasen, “we hope to change lives, and in turn the TV and film landscape as well.”

Horowitz and Pasen are repped by Elizabeth Newman at Literate for literary and Erez Rosenberg at Jackoway, Austen, Tyerman, Wertheimer, Mandelbaum, Morris, Bernstein Trattner, Auerbach, Hynick, Jaime, LeVine, Sample C Klein for legal.