About

Katharine Blake is a writer and teacher. She received her JD from Stanford Law School and has taught at Vermont Law School’s Center for Justice Reform, at San Quentin Prison, and served as director of special projects for the Children’s Defense Fund. Her first book, The Uninnocent, was chosen by The New Yorker as a Best Book of the Year. Her other writing and poetry have appeared in The Washington Post, Image, Inquest and elsewhere. She lives in Virginia with her family.

Book

Reviews & Praise for The Uninnocent

"[Blake's] legal background and her insights yield a thought-provoking consideration of the limits of our criminal justice system." — The New Yorker

"The Uninnocent is so elegantly crafted that the pleasure of reading it nearly overrides its devastating subject matter. Blake is an investigator of heartbreak, turning a critical eye on the ways our systems have failed us, and how we fail each other. Through that investigation Blake creates a story of radical empathy, a triumph of care and forgiveness." — Stephanie Danler, author of Stray and Sweetbitter

"The Uninnocent is the riveting and profound story of a woman whose teenage cousin killed a little boy, and yet it is so much more. Katharine Blake has created a brilliant weave of the deeply personal, the intricately legal, an erudite and deeply moving deep dive into families and prisons and mercy, tragedy and love, the law, loss, the sad and beautiful human heart." — Anne Lamott, author of Almost Everything: Notes on Hope"

A brutally tragic but mesmerizing read about morality and justice." — Sloane Crosley, Departures

"A sobering meditation on what justice and mercy look like and who gets it and who doesn’t." — Tomi Obaro, Buzzfeed

"An intimate and deeply moving meditation on trauma, healing, hope, and the criminal justice system . . . Crystalline prose, incisive inquiries into complex moral and legal matters, and candid reflections on the pain of losing hope make this a must-read." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A wise and moving reflection on some of the most vexing aspects of the American criminal justice system . . . Blake is an evocative writer . . . Despite its brevity, The Uninnocent invites readers to ponder some large and difficult questions." — Shelf Awareness

"Blake is a keen researcher and sharp in her academic assessment of how the criminal justice system handles the young, but it's her ability to blend that report into a shockingly poignant memoir that makes this book a must-read." — Booklist

"The Uninnocent is so elegantly crafted that the pleasure of reading it nearly overrides its devastating subject matter. Blake is an investigator of heartbreak, turning a critical eye on the ways our systems have failed us, and how we fail each other. Through that investigation Blake creates a story of radical empathy, a triumph of care and forgiveness." — Stephanie Danler, author of Stray and Sweetbitter

"'The truth changes,' Katharine Blake’s teenage cousin told a courtroom, before he was sentenced to life without parole. This sprawling essay makes me think of the fourth step in AA, the searching and fearless moral inventory. It’s an inquiry―inquiry as action―into justice, forgiveness, the nature of evil, fear and anger, luck. It’s a plea to grant mercy on the people our systems fail and betray―'no room for them down such a narrow way.' The Uninnocent is thoughtful, emotional work, and very moving." — Elisa Gabbert, author of The Unreality of Memory

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"In The Uninnocent, Katharine Blake takes on an enormous task: approaching a horrific, senseless act of violence with the acuity and rigor of a lawyer, and the compassion and sorrow of someone who loves the perpetrator. From this tension, she writes toward a deeper, more honest understanding of mercy, justice, culpability, and love. It is a searching, open-hearted work, vast in its implications and tender in its execution." — Jordan Kisner, author of Thin Places: Essays from In Between

"[A] deeply thoughtful meditation on trauma, justice, and heartbreak…Blake’s incisive prose smoothly moves from one complexity to another, finding hope and humanity in the darkness." — Vanessa Willoughby, LitHub

"Blake ruminates on the nature of heartbreak, forgiveness, family, justice, mercy, and redemption ... Her spare and often gorgeous prose is enriched by frequent quotations from Sumerian proverbs, Saint Augustine, the King James Bible, C. S. Lewis, and James Baldwin, among many others." — American Scholar

"Blake engages with writers like Maggie Nelson and Lauren Groff on “inherited trauma as a ‘silent wind,’” as she grapples with questions of justice, especially involving juvenile offenders in prison for life without parole. Blake’s discursive style and inquisitive mind propel this taut, shapely, moving narrative."

— National Book Review

"The writing is beautiful and the insights are weighty; [The Uninnocent] provokes a real interrogation into innocence and guilt, justice and mercy, pain and healing, violence and its conditions." — Arianna Rebolini, Reading Habits