Mainline Mama
A Memoir
Will be published approx. on 26. March 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-06-320571-0 (ISBN)
Description
A powerful exploration of self-resilience, family, and community from activist and prison abolitionist Keeonna Harris.
Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an obstetrician, and thought she was "grown." Within a year she was pregnant and Jason was in prison, convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to twenty-two years. Overnight Keeonna had become a "mainline mama," a parent facing the task of raising a child-while still growing up herself-with an incarcerated partner.
In this triumphant memoir, Keeonna recalls her challenging journey as a mainline mama, from learning to overcome the exhausting difficulties of navigating the carceral system in the United States to transforming herself into an advocate for women like her-the predominantly Black and Brown women left behind to pick up the pieces of their families and fractured lives.
Keeonna speaks frankly about the forces that threatened to defeat her, how she learned to re - build her broken relationship with a mother who had lost trust in her, and how time eased the shame, guilt, and stigma of being a young Black teen mom with a partner behind bars. She offers inspiration and solace, showing how to create moments of beauty, humanity, and love-such as picking the perfect wedding dress for a ceremony in a state prison visiting room-in a place de - signed to break spirits.
Mainline Mama is about creating self-love and community-crucial acts of radical resistance against a prison industrial complex designed to dehumanize and to separate and shut away incarcerated individuals and their loved ones from the world.
Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an obstetrician, and thought she was "grown." Within a year she was pregnant and Jason was in prison, convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to twenty-two years. Overnight Keeonna had become a "mainline mama," a parent facing the task of raising a child-while still growing up herself-with an incarcerated partner.
In this triumphant memoir, Keeonna recalls her challenging journey as a mainline mama, from learning to overcome the exhausting difficulties of navigating the carceral system in the United States to transforming herself into an advocate for women like her-the predominantly Black and Brown women left behind to pick up the pieces of their families and fractured lives.
Keeonna speaks frankly about the forces that threatened to defeat her, how she learned to re - build her broken relationship with a mother who had lost trust in her, and how time eased the shame, guilt, and stigma of being a young Black teen mom with a partner behind bars. She offers inspiration and solace, showing how to create moments of beauty, humanity, and love-such as picking the perfect wedding dress for a ceremony in a state prison visiting room-in a place de - signed to break spirits.
Mainline Mama is about creating self-love and community-crucial acts of radical resistance against a prison industrial complex designed to dehumanize and to separate and shut away incarcerated individuals and their loved ones from the world.
Reviews / Votes
"Mainline Mama is the rare book written to shake a system off its bloody hinges and as importantly, the writing here makes a home of the faithful space between head and heart, between yearning and wishing. Just an absolutely awesome and vigorous work of art. Keeonna Harris is a writer's writer, do you hear me." - Kiese Laymon, Author of Heavy: An American Memoir"Mainline Mama is a necessary memoir that is as tough as it is tender and as raw as it is refined. Keeonna Harris has written an abolitionist classic." - Myriam Gurba, author of Creep: Accusations and Confessions
"Mainline Mama is love letter to the women whose lives collide with our country's sprawling prison system. Keeonna Harris's memoir about her years raising a child with an incarcerated partner shows how a well-seasoned spaghetti noodle can taste of devotion, and a state-approved kiss can be an act of resistance. She and the other "mainline mamas" care not only for the men inside, but for each other. Harris shows how that care sustains her on her long journey through the carceral system, and finally, how it helps her find her way home."
- Lisa Riordan Seville, reporter, filmmaker and senior producer on the film team at Pro Publica
In Mainline Mama Keeonna Harris tells a frank, revealing and sometimes heartbreaking story of love in its many forms. Harris' growth from a very young mother navigating a hostile prison system that holds her kids' father, to a woman with the confidence to live life on her own terms, inspires. Mainline Mama offers a poignant portrayal of the power of family, against all odds, even as Harris evokes a difficult and beautiful discovery of who she is and what she wants. Keeonna Harris shares an unforgettable story of how love binds and shapes who we become, no matter the circumstances. - Piper Kerman, Author of Orange is the New Black
"This is a tender, smart and thoughtful book. Its pages are filled with beauty and disappointment and the hard won victories of a force of nature who grew up in the shadow of the prison." - Reuben Jonathan Miller, MacArthur fellow and author of Halfway Home
This affecting dispatch from inside the carceral state is not to be missed. - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A story of resilience, family, and humanity in the face of oppression, Mainline Mama is a unique look at the far-reaching impacts of the prison system in America. . . . Teens will relate to Harris' story of coming of age as a young Black woman in L.A."
- Booklist
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Dimensions
Height: 201 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
170 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-06-320571-0 (9780063205710)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Keeonna Harris is a writer, storyteller, mother of five, prison abolitionist, activist, and academic, born and raised in Watts and other parts of South Central Los Ange - les. Her work focuses on health disparities and radical organizing for women connected to systems of mass incarceration, mothering, and community building as acts of radical defiance against carceral institutions. Harris has received several honors, including a 2018-2019 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, a 2021 Tin House Summer Residency, a 2023 Baldwin For The Arts Residency, and a 2023 Hedgebrook Fellowship as the 2023 Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence. She is a 2024 Hay - market Writing Freedom Fellow and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health. She is developing the Borderland Project, a mental health and community support system for women forced to navigate carceral institutions to maintain connections with incarcerated persons. She lives in Seattle.