Piper Kerman

Piper Kerman is the author of the memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison from Spiegel & Grau. The book was adapted into an Emmy Award-winning original series for Netflix. Piper teaches writing classes for incarcerated people and is at work on a second book. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Prison Association and on the Advisory Boards of the PEN America Writing For Justice Fellowship, InsideOUT Writers, Healing Broken Circles, JustLeadershipUSA and History Studio. She has been called as a witness by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights to testify on solitary confinement and female prisoners, and by the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security Committee to testify about the need for reform of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Piper spoke at the Obama White House on re-entry and employment, the importance of arts in prisons, and the unique conditions for women in the criminal justice system. Her advocacy has been recognized by organizations such as John Jay College’s Center on Media, Crime & Justice, The Constitution Project, and the Equal Justice Initiative.