Book about Franklin County resident sweeps awards
Alabama author Jennie Miller Helderman’s nonfiction narrative “As the Sycamore Grows” took top honors in the Humanities, Memoir & Biography categories and first place overall in the Reader Views Literary Awards’ southeast Regional Awards category covering Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama.
RVLA presents awards each year to authors of books published by small, independent and university presses. Criteria for judging includes content/originality, presentation/design, innovation, social relevance, production quality, enjoyment/impact, plot/story line and resourcefulness.
“I’m thrilled beyond words,” Helderman said. “I stumbled onto a riveting story. The credit goes to Ginger Stone and Mike McNeil who lived it and then allowed me to write about it.”
“As the Sycamore Grows” tells the story of how Stone escaped the isolation and poverty of a cabin without electricity or a phone, hidden in the woods near the Natchez Trace, and how McNeil, her former husband, admitted to abusing her and declared he would do it all over again.
“Their story is akin to living in ‘The Glass Castle’ while ‘Sleeping with the Enemy,’” Helderman said, “except that it’s true. Real people, real names, raw, no paper dolls or goodie-two-shoes.”
Today Ginger Stone works as a court advocate for Safeplace, Inc., the shelter that once took her in. A resident of Russellville, she serves on the board of the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence and is a public speaker.
Jennie Helderman is a native of Gadsden who lived most recently in Florence. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Alabama and a Master’s in Public Administration from Jacksonville State. She has co-authored two books, published many stories and magazine articles and chaired the editorial board of a 150,000-circulation magazine. In 2007 she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Fiction.
Helderman has also done social work, promoted women’s and children’s issues, worked with child abuse victims and served six years on the board of Alabama’s Department of Human Resources. She founded and/or held major leadership roles in the Northwest Alabama Children’s Advocacy Center, Voices of Alabama’s Children, a women’s leadership development organization, Gadsden’s first women’s shelter and Kappa Kappa Gamma fraternity. Helderman is a member of Leadership Alabama, American Society of Journalists and Authors, The Authors Guild, and Leadership America.
“Jennie Helderman has taken a heart-breaking issue and boiled it down to human beings, of flesh and blood and lost days and fearful nights,” said Rick Bragg, Pulitzer Prize winning author of “All’s Over But the Shouting.” “It opens the door on a too-common human story, and closes you in with it.”
Published by Summers Bridgewater Press, “As the Sycamore Grows” is available wherever books are sold including independent book stores, Books-A-Million, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, booksamillion.com, jenniehelderman.com, borders.com and asthesycamoregrows.com.
