Trying to Catch Lightning in a Jar: Letters from Prison

Patty Prewitt was born and raised on a cattle ranch near Lone Jack, Missouri. Her writing was first published, in Wee Wisdom magazine, when she was in second grade. During her incarceration, she won a PEN America writing contest and had both prose and poetry published in Wrath-Bearing Tree, the Massachusetts Review, Tampa Review, Tacenda Magazine, Cholla Needles, MiPOesias, and Duende. Two of her plays have been performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. In December 2024, Prewitt was released from prison at age seventy-five, nearly forty years after what she continues to maintain was a wrongful conviction. She resides in Greenwood, Missouri, with family.