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Lauren Kessler is an award-winning author and (semi-) fearless immersion reporter who combines lively narrative with deep research. She has explored everything from the gritty world of a maximum-security prison to the grueling world of professional ballet. She is the author of ten works of narrative nonfiction, including Raising the Barre; Clever Girl; and The Happy Bottom Riding Club. Her books have been BookSense selections, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times bestsellers, Wall Street Journal and People magazine ""best"" selections, Pacific Northwest Book Award winners, and Oregon Book Award winners. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, O Magazine, salon.com, Utne Reader, the Nation, newsweek.com, Prevention, Ladies Home Journal, and elsewhere. Kessler is an international speaker and workshop leader. She founded a writers' group for inmates of a maximum-security prison, teaches storytelling for social change to nonprofits in the U.S. and abroad, and works with traditional journalists who want to hone their storytelling skills. She blogs at www.laurenchronicles.com about living an engaged life. She lives in Oregon.
The book provides insight into life inside a maximum-security prison while illuminating the benefits of the craft of writing.... This compassionate account reveals a bit of what life is like inside prison, and a bit about how writing can forge connections among vastly different people. * Publishers Weekly * Kessler gives a pulsing heart and a human face to this portion of the population all too often forgotten outside the walls. An incisive, welcome look at prison life in the U.S. * Kirkus Reviews *
