Maya Schenwar


Maya Schenwar is the editor-in-chief of Truthout, and a writer focused on prison-related topics. She is the author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn't Work and How We Can Do Better and a co-editor of the anthology Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States. She has written about prison issues for Truthout, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Ms. Magazine, and other publications. She serves as chair of The Media Consortium's coordinating committee. Schenwar is also a board member of Love & Protect, an organization that supports those who identify as women and gender non-conforming persons of color who are criminalized or harmed by state and interpersonal violence, and of the Chicago Community Bond Fund, a revolving fund that pays bond for people of color charged with crimes in Cook County, Illinois. Previous to her work at Truthout, Schenwar was a contributing editor at Punk Planet magazine and served as media coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

Career

Coverage of Schenwar’s work and interviews with Schenwar have appeared in: C-SPAN, Democracy Now!, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, The Nation, The Thom Hartmann Program, Talking Points Memo, Wisconsin Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, The Majority Report, The Utne Reader, In These Times, The Sun magazine, YES! Magazine, The Real News Network, TakePart Live, Marfa Public Radio, AlterNet, Colorlines, Bitch Magazine, Feministing, Citizen Radio, Solitary Watch, WBAI, KPFK, The Toast, KPFA, WHMP, WMPR, High Times, KPFT, and others. She has done a wide range of public speaking, both in the United States and internationally, at universities, community centers, conferences, prisons, bookstores, and other venues.
In February 2016, Schenwar presented a TEDx talk in Baltimore on prison abolition.

Books

Schenwar's book, Locked Down, Locked Out, examines how prison breaks apart families and communities, and how severing those bonds between people actually hinders the prospect of real collective safety for all. The book is told through the story of Schenwar's own family’s experience, alongside those of many other incarcerated people and their families. The book also profiles a number of decarceration campaigns, as well as restorative and transformative justice efforts, happening around the country. It focuses on intersectional projects that emphasize connection, community-building, and racial justice. Schenwar also co-edited Truthout's anthology, Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States. This book's essays chronicle the roots and manifestations of police violence, as well as the contemporary efforts to resist racist and oppressive policing.

Selected articles

Schenwar has won a Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award, an Independent Publisher Book Award, the Women's Prison Association's Sarah Powell Huntington Leadership Award, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship.