A Grip of Time: When Prison Is Your Life [Hardcover]

A Grip of Time(prison slang for a very long sentence behind bars) takes readers into a world most know little abouta maximum-security prisonand into the minds and hearts of the men who live there. These men, who are serving out life sentences for aggravated murder, join a fledgling Lifers' Writing Group started by award-winning author Lauren Kessler. Over the course of three years, meeting twice a month, the men reveal more and more about themselves, their pasts, and the alternating drama and tedium of their incarcerated lives. As they struggle with the weight of their guilt and wonder if they should hope for a future outside prison walls, Kessler struggles with the fiercely competing ideas of rehabilitation and punishment, forgiveness and blame that are at the heart of the American penal system. Gripping, intense, and heartfelt,A Grip of Time: When Prison Is Your Lifeshows what a lifetime with no hope of release looks like up-close.

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, includingRaising the Barre;Clever Girl;andThe Happy Bottom Riding Club. Her books have been BookSense selections, Washington PostandLos Angeles Timesbestsellers,Wall Street JournalandPeoplemagazine best selections, Pacific Northwest Book Award winners, and Oregon Book Award winners.

Her journalism has appeared in theNew York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, O Magazine,salon.com,Utne Reader,theNation,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, ló%