A poet, essayist and national spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice, Reginald Dwayne Betts writes and lectures about the impact of mass incarceration on American society. He is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Bastards of the Reagan Era and Shahid Reads His Own Palm, as well as a memoir, A Question of Freedom. Felon, published in October 2019, tells the story of a man confronting post-incarceration life, struggling to reenter a society that doesn’t offer open arms.

A graduate of Yale Law School, he lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and their two sons.