Keeonna Harris: I Was Tired of Hiding Who I Am

Keeonna Harris is a writer, storyteller, mother of five, prison abolitionist, activist, and academic, born and raised in Watts and South-Central Los Angeles. She has received several honors, including a 2018–2019 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, a 2021 Tin House Summer Residency, a 2023 Baldwin Center for the Arts Residency, and a 2023 Hedgebrook Writer Fellowship as the 2023 Edith Wharton Resident. She is currently a 2024 Haymarket Writing Freedom Fellow and a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health at the University of Washington. Keeonna 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. Follow her on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

In this interview, Keeonna discusses the healing experience of writing her debut memoir, Mainline Mama, her hope for readers, and more.

Name: Keeonna Harris
Literary agent: PJ Mark (Janklow & Nesbit)
Book title: Mainline Mama
Publisher: Amistad Press
Release date: February 11, 2025
Genre/category: Memoir
Elevator pitch: Mainline Mama is a story of love and motherhood under unexpected circumstances—a teen mom raising children with an incarcerated partner that stay together out of love. In trying to navigate the carceral system, I found self-love, resilience, joy, and community.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I was tired of hiding who I am—the criminal justice system has been such an integral part of my life, it became like a family member. But my shame kept me from fully talking about it with anyone outside of my closest inner-circles. In building community with other people, I realized I was not alone or exceptional. It was time to share my whole self, to let everyone know it’s OK to talk about these experiences.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

It has taken almost eight years for Mainline Mama to go from idea to publication. It took me a long time to finally admit that I wanted to write, and I wanted to write this story for everyone to read. With the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship in 2018-2019, I felt like I finally had a sign that this was something I needed to write. When I actually got the fellowship, I finally started to think about myself as a writer, and it put me on folks’ radar for the potential of my story. I started talking to people, drafting a book proposal, and collecting my stories into something that I started workshopping with other people—starting with my husband, and then other writers I love and respect. A few months after I finished the book proposal and went through some drafts and lots of revisions, I found an agent and got on the path to publication. The story was always there, but the scope and the presentation shifted; making some narrative choices as a writer about how linear or chronological it might be, what specific stories I want to tell, and all that. It was important for me to tell my story in a way that readers could understand me and see my heart, to really grapple with why I made these choices and wound up where I did.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

The biggest learning experiences for me were first, how crucial an agent is to publishing. Getting an agent was so important, I thought it would just be a professional kind of coworker thing, but this person is your advocate, and they have to get you in a way that’s not scripted. The agent has to love your story like you love it. The other was how much revision goes into the writing process. I thought editing on my own and working back through drafts before sending to other people was enough, but the amount of back and forth—with my agent, with my editor—just when I think a sentence is perfect someone points something out that makes it better, or asks a question that makes me rethink how it’s said or where it’s situated in the text. Even now I’ll see an old draft and laugh about how I thought I was done.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Tons of them. I learned a lot about myself. Memoir, I thought, was just telling my story to other people, but to write it down I had to work through so much stuff in my own life. I thought I was healed, or over so many of these stories, but there would be times I write a line and then have to wrestle with myself. Feelings would pour out onto the page and all the emotions would come back up in my head. I didn’t realize I was still angry, or sad, or even still felt shame about some things that I kept second guessing “should I really say that?”

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

To me this is a love letter to women who have had to learn to navigate the carceral system—whether that’s incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, or mainline mamas like me that are just trying to keep a connection to a loved one. I want them to know they are not alone. There is joy, connection, and community in the world. For everyone else, I hope it softens hearts and builds understanding. It’s so easy to fall into the “tough on crime” cliché and treat people who might have wronged somebody as disposable or not worth a second look. I want people to begin conversations about incarceration about shared humanity. Life is hard enough without us turning on each other.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Believe in yourself. That’s damn near the biggest thing, because if you don’t believe it, it just makes it harder to do it. And it’s always going to be hard. We’re all out here trying to do the best that we can.