Maya Schenwar

Maya Schenwar is a writer, editor, journalist and organizer working to sculpt new ways for journalism to serve the public good and fuel social transformation. She is currently Editor-at-Large at Truthout, an independent social justice news publication, where she spent over 13 years as Editor-in-Chief. Maya also recently founded the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism. She is the co-author (with Victoria Law) of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms, and the author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better. Maya is also the co-editor (with Joe Macaré and Alana Yu-Lan Price) of Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States. Maya has written op-eds and news articles for Truthout, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, The New Jersey Star-Ledger, and numerous other publications. She gave a Tedx talk on prison abolition, and has been a keynote speaker in a wide range of settings. She has appeared on Democracy Now, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NPR, and many other television and radio programs. She’s a cofounder of the Chicago Community Bond Fund and organizes with the Love & Protect collective in Chicago.