Keri Blakinger at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes journalist and investigative reporter KERI BLAKINGER for a discussion of her memoir Corrections in Ink. She will be joined in conversation by Managing Director of Prison Book Program KELLY BROTZMAN. The Prison Book Program will be gratefully accepting donations of any used paperback books at the event.

A Return to In-Person Events

Harvard Book Store is excited to re-introduce in-person programming this season. To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone in attendance, the following Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place at all of our Harvard Book Store events until further notice:

• Face coverings are required of all staff and attendees when inside the store. Masks must snugly cover nose and mouth.

About Corrections in Ink

Keri Blakinger always lived life at full throttle. Growing up, that meant throwing herself into competitive figure skating with an all-consuming passion that led her to nationals. But when her skating career suddenly fell apart, that meant diving into self-destruction with the intensity she once saved for the ice.

For the next nine years, Keri ricocheted from one dark place to the next: living on the streets, selling drugs and sex, and shooting up between classes all while trying to hold herself together enough to finish her degree at Cornell. Then, on a cold day during her senior year, the police caught her walking down the street with a Tupperware full of heroin.

Her arrest made the front page of the local news and landed her behind bars for nearly two years. There, in the Twilight Zone of New York’s jails and prisons, Keri grappled with the wreckage of her missteps and mistakes as she sobered up and searched for a better path. Along the way, she met women from all walks of life―who were all struggling through the same upside-down world of corrections. As the days ticked by, Keri came to understand how broken the justice system is and who that brokenness hurts the most.

After she walked out of her cell for the last time, Keri became a reporter dedicated to exposing our flawed prisons as only an insider could. Written with searing intensity, unflinching honesty, and shocks of humor, Corrections in Ink uncovers that dark, brutal system that affects us all. Not just a story about getting out and getting off drugs, this galvanizing memoir is about the power of second chances; about who our society throws away and who we allow to reach for redemption―and how they reach for it.

Praise for Corrections in Ink

"Corrections in Ink is a groundbreaking debut from an extraordinary writer; in her memoir, Blakinger offers a searing work of self-examination, an inquiry of power, and a funny, provocative, and inspiring personal story of addiction, prison, and investigative journalism. Her book stands as a feminist response to David Carr's The Night of the Gun, a testament to where a woman can go after rock-bottom, the power to transform oneself, and the imperative to discover and tell the truth." ―Piper Kerman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orange Is the New Black

"Corrections in Ink is a hair-raising tale of a girl torn between perfectionism and self-destruction, and a woman who uses her profound gifts to help set others free. How that girl became that woman demonstrates the beauty of storytelling―and sobriety." ―Sarah Hepola, New York Times bestselling author of Blackout

"It's hard to think of a reporter more deeply devoted to exposing the brokenness of the American prison system than Keri Blakinger, who in Corrections in Ink turns her journalistic eye and narrative gift to her own story―a riveting journey through the depths of addiction and incarceration. It's impossible to read this book and not be inspired, and called to action, by her dedication to exposing the inhumane and injustice status quo within our country's jails and prisons." ―Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of They Can't Kill Us All