Helen Benedict

Novelist, Journalist

Helen Benedict is a writer of both fiction and nonfiction and a professor of journalism at Columbia University. She is the author of eight novels, including the forthcoming The Good Deed, about refugees in Greece, and two novels about the aftermath of war, Wolf Season and Sand Queen, the latter named a “Best Contemporary War Novel” by Publishers Weekly and reviewed by The Boston Globe as “The Things They Carried for women.’” A recipient of the 2021 PEN Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History for her work with refugees, as well as the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism and the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for her exposure of sexual predation in the military, Benedict is also the author of five works of nonfiction, most recently The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women at War Serving in Iraq, and a widely-performed play, The Lonely Soldier Monologues. Her writings inspired a class action suit against the Pentagon on behalf of those sexually assaulted in the military and the 2012 Oscar-nominated documentary, The Invisible War. She also authored Virgin or Vamp: How the Press Covers Sex Crimes, the first book to examine the effects of racism and sexism on how rape is seen by the press, the public and the law.

Author photo credit to Emma O’Connor