Katherine Power studied at Brandeis, completed her Bachelor's degree through the Boston University Prison Education Program, and holds a Master's degree in Philosophy, Ethics, and Writing from Oregon State University. Her previous book, Doing Time: Papers from Framingham Prison, is available from Nighthawk Press.
Keep informed about Katherine Power's writings and speaking.
Katherine Power has given us a gracefully written book about politics, shame, spirituality, personal reparations, and redemption. It will introduce another generation to the split second decisions made in the 1960s/1970s that could change a person’s life in an instant. Insightful, honest, and moving, everyone concerned about violence, politics, prisons, and mindfulness should read this book! So it is for every thinking person around!
It is impossible not to feel moved by Katherine Power’s fascinating story. As we follow her moral and spiritual reckoning, we understand more deeply the complicated historical and personal context behind the headlines. Surrender is a beautiful memoir: her integrity, honesty, and humility are evident on every page.
Katherine Power not only tells her own story of the 1960s youth rebellion against the Vietnam War and white supremacy, but the story of a generation of politicized young people, some of whom went underground as she did. Her story traces a powerful reckoning with her actions and taking responsibility, accepting jail time. A gripping story, beautifully written.
Katherine Power’s Surrender is a page-turning account of turbulent times, political violence, decades underground, and her moving transformation to becoming a powerful peacemaker. A riveting storytelling full of lessons for our present days.
This engrossing, meditative memoir offers the reader space to ponder with the writer the motivations of her actions. It quietly de-romanticizes the life of an outlaw, showing the multiple sacrifices and hardships one needs to navigate as the state becomes ever more encompassing. Spare and compelling meditations on crime and punishment offer a bird’s eye view of state power along with an intimate view of the prison world of petty sovereigns. It will be of great interest to students of social movements and their historians, as well as to activists trying to understand the full scope of a social movement, the strategies, the underground networks, the intimate life of someone under the determined gaze of the state. The title, Surrender, is provocative, its meaning changing as the narrative develops.
A compelling story of a personal journey from Catholic School "good girl" to bank robbing urban guerilla, through years on the run from Federal authorities, the decision to surrender, prison, and the struggles to become a more emotionally grounded, fuller person without giving up her political beliefs. When I finished the book, I broke out the good tequila to drink to her successful transformation to the woman she worked so hard to become.