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Karen Andrea Campbell served six years in a full custody women's prison. To make sense of an entirely different world with new rules for survival, she began recording the lurid, poignant, heartbreaking, and often humorous stories of women in prison.
With their permission, she wrote of tragic childhoods and the fall into the criminal justice system. She recorded the stories of recidivism, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, anger management, and poverty. She learned that most of the women prisoners were mothers to young children and teens.
She witnessed the changes as they explored spirituality, education, and work ethic, desperately trying to remain connected to family. It was in those tender moments that she began to love the unloveable including herself.
To honor and humanize their stories, Karen took writing courses during her six years in prison. She was a voracious reader and studied similar titles: Piper Kerman's book: Orange Is the New Black. Anne Lamott's books: Bird by Bird, Traveling Mercies, and Imperfect Birds. David Sedaris's books: Me Talk Pretty One Day, and the SantaLand Diaries. Garrison Keillor's book: Lake Wobegon, Augusten Burroughs's books Running with Scissors, and This is How. Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Eat, Pray Love. Michelle Huneven's book: Jamesland. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book: Love in the Time of Cholera. Mary Karr's memoir: Lair's Club. Octavio Solis's short story book Retablos. Keith Richards' autobiography, Life. Karen Andrea Campbell's work has appeared in Voice Catcher, Volumes 2, 4, and 5, the Zen publication Stillpoint, and Living Yoga. Falling is her debut memoir. She lives in the beautiful Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon.
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