About - Helene Simkin Jara
Bio
Helene Simkin JaraI have been writing since the 3rd grade when I wrote a book and gave it to a teacher who I thought hated me. I hoped if I gave her that book, she would be nice to me. It didn’t work.
I guess I have ADHD of writing because I write short stories, poems, plays and non-fiction.
Being in a writing group where we take turns giving a prompt each week helps me gather many short stories. They are often, but not always a tad autobiographical. My memoir, Life on the Stand, was written when I was very bored living in Monterey. I thought hearing about being an artist model in the seventies would be at the very least amusing. The book True Doll stories emanated from watching my ex-mother-in-law comb a blonde Barbie on my back porch. To me she was a beautiful, round, brown Mexican women who had stiff legs like the Barbie she was about to make a new dress for and sell for 5 pesos in the flea market in Guadalajara. I interviewed her about her life. I then got the idea to interview men and women about their childhood experiences with dolls. Their stories just poured out of them and onto a page or two in my book.
I am motivated to give people a voice who might otherwise not have ever been given the chance to tell their story.
Helene Simkin Jara is an actor, director, author and educator who lives and works in Santa Cruz, California. Her work has been published in The Porter Gulch Review, La Revista, Mindprints, Phren-Z, Serving House Journal, Red Wheelbarrow and Nerve Cowboy. In 2003, she received the “best prose” award from Porter Gulch for her short story “Josefina” and again in 2009 for her short play “FUBMC.” In November of 2006, Helene’s play “The Tongue” was part of a festival at the African American Shakespeare Company in San Francisco. In 2007, her poem “The Difference” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has self-published Because I Had To, a collection of short stories, poems, plays and monologues. It was an Amazon Kindle bestseller in July, 2014. Her book True Doll Stories We Remember is non-fiction. In addition to Because I Had To, she has published three more books of short stories: Turn Left at the Gorilla and Go Down the Hall, and Me! Me! Me! Life on the Stand is her autobiography which is also available as an audiobook.
True Doll Stories We Remember is a collection of interviews with 90 people about their childhood experiences with dolls. It includes stories from both women and men. Several countries are also represented including Mexico, Switzerland, Korea and Ireland. Many of the tale prove to be universal.