Helen Nardecchia

Helen Nardecchia is a native of Chicago, IL. Born in the hub of a fast-moving metropolis, she found comfort and excitement in her younger years writing stories about people. In her trips to Italy and Venice, she envisioned the different lives of tourists and documented fictional stories as she traveled, not only taking in the luxurious homes but shacks and farmland. People and sites were filed in her memory for future writings.

In 2001, Helen submitted her first short story Duchess and Friends to a contest and won the Katherine Anne Porter Award in Wimberley, TX. With this encouragement, she continued to submit short stories to contests, winning a second prize in Byline magazine and

About the Author

Helen Nardecchia

an Honorable Mention in Hamilton Writers Guild. Since then, she has published articles in Good Old Days and Town Square magazines. In 2007, Winter Wonderland in Chicago was included in The Nobel Generation, Volume III.

The energy she received from these recognitions encouraged Helen to begin her first memoir. After relocating to Austin, TX, Helen spent numerous Sundays visiting her 84-year-old mother-in-law, who would tell her life story to anyone who would listen. As Sophie talked, Helen decided to document her life. Thus, Sophie and Ben was born. Not long afterward, Helen published what she called “a labor of love,” her mother’s story, illustrating through words and pictures the laughter and tears of a loving family.