L’Engle/Rahman Prize celebrates what’s possible in the connective nature of mentoring relationships

Eric Berryman and Charlotte Jones Voiklis read from the letters of Madeleine L’Engle and Ahmad Rahman, September 18, 20019.

Dear Ones,

Last month, PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program announced the creation of the L’Engle/Rahman Prize for Mentorship. As part of that program’s month-long reading series, the September 16th event featured the performance of the prize-winning writers’ works, and also a dramatic dialogue I arranged from the letters Madeleine exchanged with Ahmad Rahman in the 1970s and 80s. We share the remarks of Caits Meissner, Director of the the Prison and Justice Writing Program, below.

Tesser well,

Charlotte Jones Voiklis

“In 1976, beloved fantasy author Madeleine L’Engle applied her visionary seeing to the dystopian planet of American prison, embracing what others could not: that people in prison are capable of wild talent, profound contribution, and are worthy of sincere and authentic relational connection. 

How do we know this? 

Amazingly, we learned, also fairly recently, that L’Engle was one of our program’s very first mentors back in the 1970s—and to make the discovery even sweeter, her exchange with Ahmad Rahman is wonderfully illustrative of our “connective versus charitable” approach to the mentorship process. 

And if you don’t know these names, let me fill you in. Madeleine L’Engle wrote a little book called A Wrinkle in Time. Anyone heard of it? If you didn’t read it as a young person, the recent Ava DuVernay movie might ring a bell. 

Amhad Rahman is decidedly less of a household name, but an equally powerful person. Rahman was a highly intellectual incarcerated Black Panther Party leader who later, upon release, became a beloved Associate Professor at the University of Michigan–Dearborn. 

In the letters, the two writers share articles and book recommendations, debate their respective religious affiliations of Christianity and Islam, exchange work, share personal stories, and relate through a very personal humor. The letters range in date from 1976 to 1990—over a decade of friendship through long hand and stamped envelopes. 

Our program recognizes the Mentee-Mentor exchange as a connective experience, rather than a charitable one, where reciprocal learning occurs. As much as we rely on a mentor’s expertise to help deepen the self-expression and literary skills of imprisoned writers, we also believe in the positive, often transformative, impact of this process for the Mentor.

And as we sometimes see, and hope to keep cultivating more of, delightfully, our more accomplished writers often offer strong feedback to the writing of their assigned mentors as well, flipping the very dichotomy of mentor/mentee on its head. The truth is, many of our writers are already phenomenal talents, and looking for connection, rather than a teacher. We see the letters of Madeleine and Ahmad as an instructional tool for our incoming mentors, illustrating what an equitable, successful and sustainable connection through writing can look like—and across great difference, at that. 

I want to share more about the letters, but I think it best for you to hear them yourself. Madeleine’s granddaughter, Charlotte, has weaved together excerpts from the archived letters, performed here tonight. It is with this performance, that we are so very proud to announce that The PEN America/L’Engle-Rahman Prize for Mentorship, underwritten by Madeleine L’Engle’s family, will launch in 2020, honoring exceptional mentorships in our program. I invite you to stay connected through our mailing list to learn more about the awards when presented next season. Tonight, please join us in celebrating this extraordinary history, staged by Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Eric Berryman.”

Caits Meissner
Director, Prison and Justice Writing
PEN America