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.

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.