Piper Kerman
Author of Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison
About the Author
Piper Kerman was born in Boston on September 28, 1969 and graduated from Smith College in 1992. Despite the advantages of her education and successful family background, she became involved in money laundering and drug trafficking, and would eventually serve 13 months of a 15-month sentence in the show more Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. Kerman's memoir about her time in prison, entitled Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Woman's Prison, was published in 2010. The book was adapted by Jenji Kohan into an Emmy and Peabody award-winning series on Netflix. She currently serves on the board of the Women's Prison Association and is a vocal advocate for Justice Reform. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Piper Kerman
Works by Piper Kerman
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1969-09-28
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Smith College
- Occupations
- communications consultant
- Short biography
- Piper Eressea Kerman (born September 28, 1969) is an American author who was indicted in 1998, on charges of felonious money-laundering activities, and sentenced to 15 months' detention in a federal correctional facility, of which she eventually served 13 months. Her memoir of her prison experiences, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, was adapted into the critically acclaimed Netflix original comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black. Since leaving prison, Kerman has spoken widely about women in prison and about her own experiences there. She now works as a communication strategist for non-profit organizations.
Kerman was born in Boston into a family with a number of attorneys, doctors and educators. She graduated from Swampscott High School in Swampscott, Massachusetts, in 1987, and Smith College in 1992. She is a self-described WASP, with a paternal grandfather who was Russian-Jewish.
In 1998, Kerman was indicted for money laundering and drug trafficking and she pled guilty. Starting in 2004, she served 13 months of a 15-month sentence at FCI Danbury, a minimum security prison located in Danbury, Connecticut. - Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
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Reviews
In 1993, Piper Kerman was 24 years old, well-educated, privileged, rebellious, and bored. Also very, very stupid. She got involved with someone glamorous and exciting, and when it turned out that the glamor and excitement were fueled by a job smuggling drugs, she didn't particularly care. Eventually she was asked to help out by escorting a suitcase full of drug money on an international flight and, like an idiot, she agreed. Five years later, when she'd long since turned her back on that show more life, she was finally arrested for the crime. Due to some weird circumstances involving extradition issues with the drug kingpin she was indirectly working for, she didn't serve her prison time for it until eleven years after the fact, when she did thirteen months in a minimum-security women's prison in Connecticut. This memoir is about her experiences "on the inside.
Kerman offers us a very different perspective on prison life than the depictions you usually see on the news, or in television and movies. It's not a violent story, or a sensational one. She's not trying to impress us with how tough she is or make us feel sorry for her. Mostly, it's about the ordinary experiences of life in prison, about staying sane as you do your time, and, most especially, about the surprisingly close and supportive relationships that develop between prisoners. It's also a quiet condemnation of aspects of the US criminal justice system. Kerman never gets up on a soapbox and rants, but she does make it clear how ill-served many of these women are by the system, which does little except teach people how to live as prisoners. Overall, it's an interesting and rather eye-opening read. show less
Kerman offers us a very different perspective on prison life than the depictions you usually see on the news, or in television and movies. It's not a violent story, or a sensational one. She's not trying to impress us with how tough she is or make us feel sorry for her. Mostly, it's about the ordinary experiences of life in prison, about staying sane as you do your time, and, most especially, about the surprisingly close and supportive relationships that develop between prisoners. It's also a quiet condemnation of aspects of the US criminal justice system. Kerman never gets up on a soapbox and rants, but she does make it clear how ill-served many of these women are by the system, which does little except teach people how to live as prisoners. Overall, it's an interesting and rather eye-opening read. show less
Piper Kerman is young, reckless, and lovelorn as a young Smith College grad when she allows her lover to pressure her into smuggling drug money. Soon after her one nerve-wracking foray into crime, she leaves her lover and returns to normal life in the U.S. desperate to forget her one indiscretion. Years on, living in New York with her soon-to-be fiance and earning a living as a freelance producer, Kerman is surprised and distraught when her past catches up with her in the form of two customs show more officers and a court date in Chicago, where she is charged with drug smuggling and money laundering. With the War on Drugs in full swing, making mandatory minimum sentences for any and all drug crimes regardless of circumstances at least ten years, Piper's best option is to plea guilty to her crime and hope for a much more lenient sentence. When all is said and done, Kerman finds herself reporting to Danbury, Connecticut for a year in minimum security women's prison.
What follows is Kerman's compelling, all-too-human story that uses her unique situation to lay bare the broken prison system and its often unexpectedly sympathetic captives. Within the pages, Kerman brings to light the awful feeling of exposure and powerlessness that come with a prison sentence. Despite being in a relatively low security portion of the prison system for a relatively short stretch of time, Kerman is struck by the humiliating rituals of the prison and her sudden downgrading to something less than human immediately upon her arrival within prison walls.
While Kerman doesn't excuse the crimes of the women she gets to know and even love within the prison walls, she does much to humanize and create sympathy for a subset of society struggling within the system. For many of the women she meets, making money in the underground economy is the only way of making any money at all, and the prison system does very little to help them succeed in a crime free life on the outside. As much as these women look forward to freedom, a feeling of trepidation lurks as they stumble through "exit" classes that do laughably little to address the practical aspects of living and working in a world that has continued to change in their absence. Kerman notes that the teachers of the classes, while occasionally well-meaning, could hardly propose a way of even finding an apartment in which to live upon release.
Orange is the New Black is at once profoundly revealing and effortlessly entertaining. Kerman has a vivid, honest voice that doesn't drift into self-pity but instead keenly observes the people around her both good and bad. She paints compelling and empathetic portraits of the prisoners that shared her life and made her time within the prison system bearable. At the same time, though, she shines a light on the dark corners of a life behind bars that most of us hope never to experience. Orange is the New Black is just the sort of book that people really do need to read, and it's just our luck that Kerman's book is nearly as entertaining as it is important. show less
What follows is Kerman's compelling, all-too-human story that uses her unique situation to lay bare the broken prison system and its often unexpectedly sympathetic captives. Within the pages, Kerman brings to light the awful feeling of exposure and powerlessness that come with a prison sentence. Despite being in a relatively low security portion of the prison system for a relatively short stretch of time, Kerman is struck by the humiliating rituals of the prison and her sudden downgrading to something less than human immediately upon her arrival within prison walls.
While Kerman doesn't excuse the crimes of the women she gets to know and even love within the prison walls, she does much to humanize and create sympathy for a subset of society struggling within the system. For many of the women she meets, making money in the underground economy is the only way of making any money at all, and the prison system does very little to help them succeed in a crime free life on the outside. As much as these women look forward to freedom, a feeling of trepidation lurks as they stumble through "exit" classes that do laughably little to address the practical aspects of living and working in a world that has continued to change in their absence. Kerman notes that the teachers of the classes, while occasionally well-meaning, could hardly propose a way of even finding an apartment in which to live upon release.
Orange is the New Black is at once profoundly revealing and effortlessly entertaining. Kerman has a vivid, honest voice that doesn't drift into self-pity but instead keenly observes the people around her both good and bad. She paints compelling and empathetic portraits of the prisoners that shared her life and made her time within the prison system bearable. At the same time, though, she shines a light on the dark corners of a life behind bars that most of us hope never to experience. Orange is the New Black is just the sort of book that people really do need to read, and it's just our luck that Kerman's book is nearly as entertaining as it is important. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Like many, I am obsessed with the TV show that this memoir inspired, so when I found the book in a local store, I became ecstatic. I was warned that the book wouldn't be quite the same as the show and that I shouldn't get my hopes up too high, but as I found myself enthralled in the midst of Season 4, I decided it was time to match my reading material and what I was watching. I found that, hopes still held high, I was not disappointed.
This book was fascinating, both for a fan of the show and show more in general. It was awesome to see the characters I already knew and loved in their real-life setting. Yes, some names had been changed between the book and show, and yes, most names had been changed between the book and real life, but it was easy to discern in a lot of cases who was supposed to be who. I was also impressed by how many plot points throughout the show, including even the trial of the Martha Stewart-esque Judy King in later seasons, matched or were at least inspired by the events of the real-life Piper's prison stay. The book also gave the show more credibility in my eyes; I've seen the show criticized for not giving an accurate portrayal of prison, and my own boyfriend tells me the inmates aren't hardened enough to be realistic, but reading an accurate portrayal of a minimum security prison and seeing that almost all the details that were called into question were actual facts about Piper's stay really reinforced my faith in the interpretation.
More importantly than the comparisons between the book and show are the sentiments about prison life that this memoir expresses. I would have enjoyed it, whether or not I'd watched the show, because of its fascinating details regarding prison life, the diversity of the women encountered, and the open-minded affection with which Piper regarded these women. Despite being fairly well-off, she doesn't see herself as better than any of the other inmates, and she spends a great deal of time in this book exploring the ways that most inmates are locked in a hard-to-break cycle between prison and the real world. She shows that prison doesn't even try to prepare inmates with the skills they need to survive as productive members of society and she addresses issues such as race, poverty, and mental illness that make a person particularly susceptible to this system.
I also liked this book for it's open-minded inclusion of women, not only of different races but also of different categories in the LGBT community. Piper obviously felt attracted to women, which precluded much judgment in regard to lesbians, but I was impressed that she even gave fair time to the trans woman she encountered in the prison and that, despite the fact that most of her anecdotes regarding this particular inmate included very politically incorrect terminology that many inmates and COs had used, Piper herself always used proper pronouns in her narration and seemed to truly respect who this woman was. The only thing this book lacked was a real acknowledgement of bisexuality/pansexuality, which I found somewhat disappointing. Though Piper stated that she had slept with many people, both men and women, in her twenties, she still described herself in her relationship with Larry as an ex-lesbian. This is her decision to make, being that it is her own identity, but I was surprised at the categorization and wondered why the concept of bi/pan people was never addressed.
In short, I enjoyed this book immensely, struggling to put it down. It's great for fans and non-fans of the show alike, and it gives a valuable insight to life as an inmate and the problems therein. show less
This book was fascinating, both for a fan of the show and show more in general. It was awesome to see the characters I already knew and loved in their real-life setting. Yes, some names had been changed between the book and show, and yes, most names had been changed between the book and real life, but it was easy to discern in a lot of cases who was supposed to be who. I was also impressed by how many plot points throughout the show, including even the trial of the Martha Stewart-esque Judy King in later seasons, matched or were at least inspired by the events of the real-life Piper's prison stay. The book also gave the show more credibility in my eyes; I've seen the show criticized for not giving an accurate portrayal of prison, and my own boyfriend tells me the inmates aren't hardened enough to be realistic, but reading an accurate portrayal of a minimum security prison and seeing that almost all the details that were called into question were actual facts about Piper's stay really reinforced my faith in the interpretation.
More importantly than the comparisons between the book and show are the sentiments about prison life that this memoir expresses. I would have enjoyed it, whether or not I'd watched the show, because of its fascinating details regarding prison life, the diversity of the women encountered, and the open-minded affection with which Piper regarded these women. Despite being fairly well-off, she doesn't see herself as better than any of the other inmates, and she spends a great deal of time in this book exploring the ways that most inmates are locked in a hard-to-break cycle between prison and the real world. She shows that prison doesn't even try to prepare inmates with the skills they need to survive as productive members of society and she addresses issues such as race, poverty, and mental illness that make a person particularly susceptible to this system.
I also liked this book for it's open-minded inclusion of women, not only of different races but also of different categories in the LGBT community. Piper obviously felt attracted to women, which precluded much judgment in regard to lesbians, but I was impressed that she even gave fair time to the trans woman she encountered in the prison and that, despite the fact that most of her anecdotes regarding this particular inmate included very politically incorrect terminology that many inmates and COs had used, Piper herself always used proper pronouns in her narration and seemed to truly respect who this woman was. The only thing this book lacked was a real acknowledgement of bisexuality/pansexuality, which I found somewhat disappointing. Though Piper stated that she had slept with many people, both men and women, in her twenties, she still described herself in her relationship with Larry as an ex-lesbian. This is her decision to make, being that it is her own identity, but I was surprised at the categorization and wondered why the concept of bi/pan people was never addressed.
In short, I enjoyed this book immensely, struggling to put it down. It's great for fans and non-fans of the show alike, and it gives a valuable insight to life as an inmate and the problems therein. show less
I raced through this book in one day, partly because I was mesmerized, especially in the first half of the book where Piper Kerman writes about her crimes and the terrifying experience of getting locked up, and partly because some of the middle sections had more detail than I was interested in so I was skimming. Those sections are still worth reading, there's a lot about the relationships she developed with other inmates, and the eye-opening, riveting parts of the book more than make up for show more what's less interesting. It's a gripping, cautionary tale. The choices she made in her early to mid-20's that led to prison are not so different, in kind if not degree, from the sorts of dumb mistakes a lot of us make when we're young. Her account of life in prison, which is both worse and better than I pictured, is a civic education. Reading the book gave me a visceral sense of what losing my freedom would feel like, a fascinating exercise that I hope to only live vicariously. show less
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