Chained Birds Book Trailer

Awards and Praise for Chained Birds

CHAINED BIRDS by Carla Conti has earned many book awards since its November 2024 launch, including: 4 True Crime awards, a 1st Place Nellie Bly Journalism award, and a 1st Place Debut Author award.Best Thrillers Magazine calls CHAINED BIRDS "An emotional, eye-popping, personal expose of the American prison system ... ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST THRILLERS."Manhattan Book Reviews says CHAINED BIRDS is "Gripping ... from frustration to sadness and even awe at the events that transpired ... DESTINED TO BE A TRUE CRIME CLASSIC."Independent Book Review calls CHAINED BIRDS "A captivating true crime story ... and engrossing memoir of a journalist making a difference ... ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS WE READ IN 2024."Order CHAINED BIRDS in Hardcover, Paperback, eBook and Audiobook from AmazonCarla Conti is the author and narrator of CHAINED BIRDS' audiobook. Her performance is praised for her captivating style. "The dialogue was rich and authentic, allowing the listener to become fully immersed ..."

Carla Conti is the author and narrator of CHAINED BIRDS' audiobook. Her performance is praised for bringing "a passion in a way an outside reader simply couldn't ... her performance is exceptional."

Order the CHAINED BIRDS author-narrated Audiobook from Amazon or Audible
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The latest blog posts

Chained Birds continues to get more early praise from editorial reviews including BestThrillers, US Review of Books, and Independent Book Review

Chained Birds gets more early praise from editorial reviewers

More early praise continues to roll in for my debut, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, launching November 12, 2024, with WildBlue Press. Is it okay to stop pinching myself now? As I mentioned in my post about getting my first “highly recommended” and 5-star editorial review from Readers’ Favorite, I am slowly recovering from the impostor syndrome that afflicts many

Chained Birds’ exposé focus is historic Lewisburg Prison

It’s no spoiler to reveal that my true crime memoir Chained Birds is also part exposé of the horrific experimental prison program that operated at Pennsylvania’s Lewisburg Prison from 2009-2018. One of the book’s main characters, federal inmate Kevin Sanders, was my inside source who helped me chronicle the cruelty and bloodshed inside Lewisburg as he was swept up in

Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir nabs 5-star editorial review ahead of November 2024 publication

Chained Birds nabs 5-star editorial review ahead of November release

Imagine my euphoria after opening my inbox and seeing this 5-star review from Readers’ Favorite this week. And the fact this is my first editorial critique makes it all the more special. As a debut author trying to navigate the publishing world amid a wee bit of imposter syndrome, this review by Carol Thompson validated everything I set out to

First look at Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir's Original Artwork that inspired the book title and cover design

First look at original artwork for Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir

Prison artist sketch inspires book title and cover design (cover reveal coming soon!) The November 12, 2024 launch date of Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir is just around the corner! Manuscript editing is complete. My publisher, WildBlue Press, has begun its marketing efforts. And soon, I’ll be revealing the cover design that will incorporate my most cherished piece of

Carla Conti's Debut True Crime Memoir, Chained Birds, to be Published by WildBlue Press in Fall 2024

Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir to be Published by WildBlue Press November 12, 2024

I’m thrilled to announce my debut true crime memoir, Chained Birds, has found a home with WildBlue Press and will be published this November! I signed with WildBlue Press at the end of 2023 following two weeks of dialogue with press co-founder (and author) Steve Jackson. Steve and I dove deep into my book’s details to ensure it would meet

Spellbinding film 'Subject' examines ethics and fallout in documentary storytelling and features The Staircase documentary about Kathleen and Michael Peterson

Spellbinding film ‘Subject’ examines ethics and fallout in true crime and documentary storytelling

For purveyors and consumers of true crime and other documentaries, the film Subject is a gripping, must-see examination of everyone’s role in this burgeoning infotainment landscape. An award-winning 2022 film just released on Amazon this month, Subject features participants from a handful of nonfiction films and their wide variety of personal fallout. The outcomes range from devastating to exonerating and

Book Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir will expose prison abuse, gang violence, criminal justice failures

I never knew what a mood board was until I decided to enter a couple of X (formerly Twitter) book pitch contests this fall. Because I love tinkering with graphics, I dove into creating my first-ever mood board for November’s #MoodPitch contest — a contest that ended up getting canceled. The volunteer contest organizers decided to pull it from X

A main character in Carla Conti's book Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, befriends famed Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger in the Florida prison where the two men served for four years before Bulger was murdered behind bars.

Murdered Boston mobster Whitey Bulger is featured in Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir

In 2014, inmate Kevin Sanders stepped off a ConAir flight from Pennsylvania to Orlando and, on the tarmac, met an “old timer” in an orange jumpsuit wearing the same belly chain and shackles. The ornery felon with a sharp tongue and Southie Boston accent turned out to be the notorious Boston mobster Whitey Bulger. Kevin and Whitey were slated for

Chained door

Gruesome prison murders and failed principle of ‘qualified immunity’ spotlighted in George Will op-ed

The Washington Post’s George Will was out with an important op-ed this week that shines a spotlight on the legal loophole of “qualified immunity,” a principle that gives lawsuit protection to government workers acting in an official capacity. Will’s piece centers on a U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that prevented a family from suing anyone in a South

Coming in 2024: Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, by Carla Conti

Welcome to my digital home! This space is devoted to tidbits about my book in progress, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, my publishing safari, anything that catches my fancy in the true crime world, and posts about prison reform and the criminal justice system — a central theme to Chain Birds’ story. More than ten years in the making,

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