Antwone Fisher
Screenwriter/Poet

Antwone Quenton Fisher was born on August 3, 1959 inside a women’s prison in Cleveland, Ohio.  Because his mother was incarcerated and his father was shot and killed before Antwone’s birth, he was placed in foster care just weeks after he was born.  When he was two years old he was placed with the Picketts, who had nine other children.  The fourteen years that Antwone spent in their home were traumatizing - filled with physical, emotional and sexual abuse.  Finally, after a large dispute with Mrs. Pickett, Antwone was forced to leave and he was sent to George Junior Republic School, an institution for troubled young men.  After he became emancipated, he turned to a life of crime and was homeless for brief time prior to joining the Navy.  While in the service, Fisher healed some of his anger and pain through the help of a Navy psychiatrist, Commander Williams.  Through his experiences in the Navy, he learned to walk with his head high, to trust others, and that others could rely on him as well. Much of Fisher’s poetry revolves around the subject of being a powerless young person in a destructive foster care system.

Information from The Orphan Society and Wikipedia