Julia Fox and Nora Fried Have A Women’s Book Club. It’s on Rikers Island

Angela Winston, 37, spent 11 months on Rikers Island, in a New York jail complex that has become notorious for inhumane conditions and reports of violence perpetrated by correctional officers. Now living in a treatment facility after her recent release, she’s focused on parenting her three-year-old daughter and putting her time in jail behind her. She feels a lot of anguish about the months she served. How could she not? But I called her on the phone earlier this week to talk about one part of her time at Rikers that she remembers fondly: the book club.The book club is Rosebuds Reading Collective, a nonprofit founded in 2025 by stand-up comedian Nora Fried, and supported by author and actress Julia Fox, who serves as the organization’s creative director. The group offers book clubs, writing workshops, and author visits to women incarcerated at Rikers Island.I tell Angela that I have actually seen her before, in a clip on the collective shared by CNN last month in which she responded to a writing prompt from Fox, who asks the group to write about a person in their life that they had to let go of. In the clip, Angela volunteers to share what she wrote with the group, where she talks about a young love she had with a girl she met on MySpace when she was 14. The relationship ended tragically when the girl was murdered in a neighborhood park in Queens. “I really liked her and she really liked me. All we did was kiss,” Angela wrote. “I took a turn for the worst. Staying out late, doing real reckless things that I’m ashamed of now. And I never had a relationship with a woman ever since.” I spoke to Angela about that story, and asked if she expected the club to be a space where she’d feel comfortable discussing such intimate life moments. She told me no, she definitely did not expect to get such a positive experience from the club nor to feel so comfortable opening up. She had tried other programs available at the jail, like cosmetology and a culinary class,