Reginald Dwayne Betts

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet and lawyer. A 2021 MacArthur Fellow, he is the Founder and CEO of the Freedom Reads, an organization that makes beautifully handcrafted wooden bookcases and transforms them into libraries opened on prison cellblocks. The author of a memoir and four collections of poetry, he has transformed the American Book Award winning Felon, into a solo theater show that explores the post incarceration experience and lingering consequences of a criminal record through poetry, stories, and engaging with the timeless and transcendental art of papermaking. Betts holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.