Prisoners of Fiction
Hip hop artist T.I. recently released his debut novel, Power and Beauty: a Love Story of Life on the Streets. Inspired by Sister Souljah's The Coldest Winter Ever, the novel tells the story of Paul "Power" Clay and his adopted sister Tanya "Beauty" Long. After their mother dies in a fire, the siblings follow separate paths into adulthood but are always connected by their past and their growing love for each other.
Also recently released was the author himself, after serving an 11-month prison term for drug possession. Although he began his novel before entering prison, T.I. says that his time incarcerated gave him "a lot more time to focus and go through it with a fine-tooth comb and just apply all of the necessary bells, whistles, and all of the extra elements into it that…would make it a compelling piece".
The following novels were also written while the authors were incarcerated:
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
 |
 |
 |
 |
2 thoughts on “Prisoners of Fiction”
There is also Canadian Stephen Reid, husband of poet Susan Musgrave who wrote his first fiction title – Jackrabbit Parole – when he was in prison for robbing banks.
And then there are those who use their experiences in prison, after the fact – Daniel Defoe in Moll Flanders, for instance.