Kevin D. Sawyer is an African American native of San Francisco, California, born in 1963. He has written numerous unpublished short stories, memoirs, essays, poems, and journals on incarceration and other subjects. Some of his work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, 580 Split, San Quentin News, Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian, Harvard Journal of African American Policy, Brothers in Pen anthologies, Iron City Magazine, San Francisco Bay View, Street Spirit, The Pioneer, California Prison Focus, Oakland Post, Davis Vanguard, American Prison Writing Archive, Filter Magazine, PEN America, Prison Journalism Project, UCLA Law Review, The News Station, El Tecolote, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Wall City, and The Life of the Law.

Sawyer is the associate editor for San Quentin News and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He’s a 2019 PEN America Honorable Mention winner for nonfiction, a 2016 recipient of The James Aronson Award for Community Journalism, and he was on the San Quentin News team that won the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2014 James Madison Freedom of Information Award.

Prior to incarceration, Sawyer worked fourteen continuous years in the telecommunications industry for several corporations. He’s a certified electrician through the National Center for Construction Education and Research and a practiced guitar and piano player. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in mass communication with a special broadcasting option from California State University, Hayward, and a Diploma as paralegal/legal assistant from Blackstone Career Institute. He is currently working on a novel.