Frank Kensaku Saragosa’s ‘Life. In Pieces’ won a PEN America literary award

SAN DIEGO — 

Frank Kensaku Saragosa felt a bit uneasy as he walked past the tents that lined the sidewalk along downtown San Diego’s East Village.

“I used to stay over there,” he said, pointing to an embankment off Commercial Street near Interstate 5.

Saragosa, 56, was anxious that some of the homeless people in the sidewalk encampments might recognize him from the four years he spent on the street.

But Saragosa is being recognized for something else today. Early in September, he was named the first-place winner in two categories of the prestigious PEN America literary awards in the prison-writing category.

“Life. In Pieces” earned him first place in the fiction category and “Caught Crossing, Caught Between — A Tale of Two Cities” earned first place in the essay category.

Source: He’s a felon who was homeless. He just won two prestigious national writing awards