|  Helen Epstein is the author of five books of literary non-fiction including the two memoirs Children of the Holocaust and Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for Her Mother's History and the biography Joe Papp: An American Life . All three books were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year.
In 1971, she graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism where she began a long friendship with classmate, now cultural critic, Margo Jefferson. After graduation, both women worked as assistants to Columbia professors while launching their freelance writing careers. Helen freelanced for diverse publications including McCall's, Viva, Ms., Midstream, the National Jewish Monthly, the Soho Weekly News and the Sunday New York Times where her first Magazine cover story on freelance musician Ed Birdwell ran in 1974.
Her profiles of cultural figures such as art historian Meyer Shapiro and legendary musicians such as Vladimir Horowitz, Leonard Bernstein and Yo-Yo Ma have received various awards. She began teaching Journalism at New York University in 1974 and became the first woman in the journalism department to be awarded tenure.
Helen Epstein continues to teach as a guest lecturer at MFA writing programs. She is on the faculty of the WMU'S Prague Summer Seminars and affiliated with Harvard University's Center for European Studies and Brandeis University's Hadassah-Brandeis Women’s Institute. She has an active speaking career and has lectured at a wide variety of venues including university departments of Journalism, Women's Studies, European Studies and Jewish Studies; mental health organizations; high schools; synagogues, libraries and churches; the United States Military Academy at West Point; and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. She lives with her husband and two sons outside Boston.
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