Corrections in Ink: Dispatches from an American Prison

An electric memoir that follows a young woman from chasing Olympic dreams on the ice rink, through addiction and prison, to finally discovering her voice as a journalist. Keri Blakinger had always lived at full throttle. Whether flying through the air, chasing Olympic dreams on the ice rink; surviving on as few calories as she could; or balancing a heroin addiction with pursuing a degree at an Ivy League university. But on a cold December day, Keri is arrested with a Tupperware container full of heroin. Shortly afterwards, she is convicted and sent to prison. Forced to confront her addiction, Keri finally manages to break free of it, and finds herself in a place unlike anything she has experienced before: a world built on senseless brutality, but whose inhabitants, her fellow inmates, will change her life forever. Written in luminous prose, with searing honesty and flashes of dark humour, Corrections in Ink shines a light on a broken prison system, and the cruelty and kindness Blakinger experienced there. It is a radical call for justice, and a testament to the power of finding one's voice. AUTHOR: Keri Blakinger is a Texas-based journalist. She is a staff writer for the Marshall Project, and her work has appeared in VICE, the Washington Post Magazine, and on NBC News and the BBC. Corrections in Ink is her first book. See more