She became known as the “queen of hip-hop lit.” Smith posted a New York Times article about former madam and drug dealer Vickie Stringer, who wrote a memoir in prison, and went on to found a publishing company. There’s something telling about The Odyssey and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract being on there. “Anne Rice does, too.”īooks were popular at Danbury, and Kerman had a lengthy Amazon wishlist, which friends and strangers could peruse. “Resonates strongly with Danbury’s Latinos for some reason,” Kerman explained. That list includes My Life Among the Serial Killers by Helen Morrison, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and The Collected Works of V.C. package of Graham Crackers, Vanilla Wafers or Oreosġ round of Laughing Cow cheese (8 wedges)Īn informal poll was taken, and Kerman returned with a list of the top 10 books inmates were reading.

(popular at birthday and going away parties)ġ six-oz. Here are five interesting tidbits from the Pipebomb:Īn entry from May 2004 details the culinary delight known as prison cheesecake. The blog spanned the length of her 13-month sentence in Danbury Federal, from February 2004 to March 2005, and throughout, Smith refers to Kerman lovingly as “our girl.” In browsing the entries, little details of prison life emerge. You can see the genesis of that book on Pipebomb, the blog Kerman and her fiance at the time, Larry Smith, kept while she was imprisoned. The show’s popularity is a refreshing surprise, and so is the dialogue it’s started online about women’s representation on TV.īut the narrative started with Piper Kerman’s 2010 memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. The show’s main character, Piper Chapman, is our entry point into the lives of more than a dozen different inmates of varying ages, races and classes. Orange Is the New Black is the latest hit in Netflix’s new chain of original programs, brought into existence by Weeds’ Jenji Kohan and set in a women’s prison.

Piper kerman's memoir