Terry Gross

Poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch has combined his two occupations to produce his new book, "The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade." (W. W. Norton) The work is a collection of essays whose topics range from the scheme to use cemeteries as golf courses to poignant stories from his twenty year career as an undertaker. Lynch says he thinks that the meaning of life is connected to death, and his book primarily discusses the impact of the dead on the living.

Television producer Tom Fontana has collaborated with Barry Levinson on the critically acclaimed drama "Homicide: Life on the Street." The team is now premiering a new adult drama for HBO, called "Oz," which FONTANA also wrote. "Oz" is a realistic look at an experimental unit of a maximum security prison whose aim is to rehabilitate its inmates. Each episode focuses on a specific theme, such as sex or capital punishment, and how it affects the characters. "Oz" debuted on July 12 on HBO and can be seen on Mondays at 11 PM ET.

Former prison warden Tekla Dennison Miller wrote a memoir called "The Warden Wore Pink" (Biddle Publishing Company) about her twenty year career as a warden of a men's maximum security prison. She describes the experience of women in corrections and reveals the reality of prison life.