John J. Lennon is an incarcerated journalist and writer currently serving a 28-years-to-life sentence for murder, drug sales, and gun possession at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York248. He grew up in Brooklyn and Hell’s Kitchen, New York, with a turbulent youth marked by involvement in crime and time in juvenile facilities45.
Lennon is a contributing editor at Esquire and a contributing writer for The Marshall Project, with his work also appearing in major outlets such as The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, and Sports Illustrated248. He began his writing career in prison, first publishing an essay in The Atlantic in 2013. His journalism often combines memoir with reporting on justice issues, especially from an insider’s perspective145.
He has been recognized for his contributions to prison journalism and was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in feature writing for his Esquire article “This Place Is Crazy,” which was later anthologized in Best American Magazine Writing 2019147. Lennon is also involved with the Prison Journalism Project and has received several fellowships4. His memoir, The Tragedy of True Crime, is scheduled to be published in 202536.