About Author Carla Conti

Carla Conti is a former journalist and author of the award-winning true crime memoir Chained Birds: A Crimemoir, a prison abuse exposé about justice and survival in federal prison. It took her ten years to write as she balanced the safety of the story participants (including herself) in this tell-all thriller of prison gang hit orders and corrupt officials.


Chained Birds has won multiple 2025 national and international book awards, including 1st Place in True Crime from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Winner in True Crime from the Indie Reader Discovery Awards, Silver in True Crime from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), and a 1st Place Nellie Bly Journalism award from the Chanticleer International Book Awards.

In the summer of 2025, Carla regained her publishing rights to Chained Birds and released an “Author’s Cut” 3rd edition under her own imprint (Crimemoir Press) that includes 20+ never-before-seen photos, sketches, and prison artwork.

Carla has served as a guest speaker, author panelist, and group moderator for writers’ conferences and authors’ groups, including the annual Killer Nashville conference, and for her local chapter of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, who tolerates her true crime habit.

Carla’s next true crime book is another Pennsylvania thriller called The Jacklighter: Murder, Secrets, and the Hunt for Truth in Small-Town Pennsylvania. It’s scheduled for release in 2026.

A Jacklighter teaser appears at the end of all formats of the new Chained Birds edition. You can also preview the first two chapters by signing up for Carla’s free newsletter.

You can read more about Carla on her Author Profile pages at Amazon, Bookbub, and Goodreads, where you can also ask her questions via the Goodreads forum.

You can reach Carla via any of the social media links at right or this submission form. She’ll do her best to respond to messages promptly.