Mara Leveritt is an American investigative reporter, with a focus on

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. In 1991, she reported on the international sale of plasma drawn from Arkansas prisoners, highlighting concerns about inadequate disease screening. The program ended in 1994. By then, plasma from Arkansas prisons had been linked to infections in Canada, where thousands of individuals contracted HIV or hepatitis C. In 1995, Leveritt left newspaper reporting to write in-depth about other cases she considered disturbing. Her book ''The Boys on the Tracks'' has been called "a wrecking-ball tale of tragedy, malfeasance, and machine politics" and "one of the most important examples of

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend m ...

in modern Arkansas history." Reviewers described ''

Devil's Knot ''Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three'' is a 2002 true crime book by Mara Leveritt, about the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old children and the subsequent trials of three teenagers charged with and convicted of the crimes. ...

'' about prosecutions of the West Memphis Three, as "a riveting portrait of a down-at-the-heels, socially conservative rural town with more than its share of corruption and violence" and "an indictment of a culture and legal system that failed to protect children as defendants or victims." The book was adapted for a feature film of the same name in 2013. ''Dark Spell'', a follow-up book about Jason Baldwin, one of the West Memphis Three, was called a "powerful look at how the wrong agenda can thoroughly undermine the justice system." Leveritt's final book, ''All Quiet at Mena," ''explored the little-known conflicts between police work and politics surrounding the company that hid Barry Seal's smuggling aircraft in Arkansas. One review noted that " . . . with documents obtained under FOI and extensive cooperation from IRS and state police investigators who watched activities at the airport for years, everitthas contributed a wealth of new information."'' ''The Arkansas State Library listed the book as a "gem."''

Awards

Leveritt has been inducted into the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame. She has been awarded Arkansas's Booker Worthen Literary Prize (twice), a Laman Writer's Fellowship, Arkansas's

Porter Prize The Porter Prize, established in 1984 by the non-profit organization known as the Porter Fund Literary Prize, is awarded annually to a writer who has created a substantial body of work and has a significant connection with Arkansas. The $5000 prize ...

, and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the

University of Arkansas at Little Rock The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock, UALR) is a Public university, public research university in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leveritt, Mara Living people Writers from Arkansas American non-fiction writers American investigative journalists Year of birth missing (living people)