Elizabeth Hawes is an actress, gardener, playwright, poet, and incarcerated woman in Minnesota. She is the former editor of Reflector, the prison news magazine at Minnesota Correctional Institution (MCI)---Shakopee, where Hawes is serving her Life Without Parole sentence. Hawes authored the play Supernova, examining women’s incarceration and its effects on children. She has won three awards from PEN America Prison Writing Contest as well as the Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize. She is a two-time recipient of the Ridgeway Reporting Project award (formerly called the Solitary Confinement Reporting Project) from Solitary Watch, and her work has been published in the Rumpus, Santa Clara Review, Black Lipstick and Truthout.