Nate Mckowen

Nathaniel Mckowen is a filmmaker, business owner, criminal justice reform advocate, and father. After graduating from the New York Film Academy in 2007, the trajectory of his life changed when a fatal mistake led to a 10-year prison sentence. It was during that time that he discovered creative writing and a new sense of purpose to use storytelling as a tool for inspiration and empathy building. His memoir was awarded the PEN Prison Writing Award in 2016 and he has since been published in various journals and has had the privilege of sharing his story far and wide, including recently as a keynote on resilience at the Go Fund Me virtual summit. Today he runs Updraft Productions in Tucson, hosts the Handcuffed to Freedom podcast, and leads the Reframing Justice project to shift the narrative around what incarceration and re-entry into society should look like.