Helen Sheehy - Born To Talk

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Thank you Helen Sheehy for joining me on the Born To Talk Radio Show Podcast.

Meet Helen Sheehy.

Helen Sheehy grew up on tenant farms in Oklahoma and Kansas. She’s worked as a dramaturg at Hartford Stage Company. In 1996 she wrote Eva Le Gallienne: A Biography. In 2003 she wrote Elenora Duse: A Biography. Lastly, she wrote, Margo: The Life and Theatre of Margo Jones. The latter two books were named New York Times notable books of the year.

Currently, Helen lives in Hamden, Connecticut. She also taught theatre and acting at Southern Connecticut State University for more than two decades. After spending years writing non-fiction, she has turned to her earliest love, telling stories. Just Willa is her first novel, that just released on April 13, 2025.

Just Willa.

We meet Willa Hardesty in 1964, while she’s burning trash in a barrel and thinking “this is hell.” Angry and frustrated, she finds some items she had long forgotten, and remembers that she had once been happy. In the ensuing chapters Willa’s life unfolds like a tapestry, beginning in 1927 when she’s eleven, about to accompany her mother on a train ride from Oklahoma to Missouri.

Helen’s Takeaways.

“In my debut novel, Just Willa, I try to capture the essence of rural America. It spans seven decades of one woman’s life, taking us from the Dust Bowl to the Depression, from Roosevelt to Reagan. The heroine of my novel, Willa Hardesty, was inspired by my mother. It gives us a character of indomitable spirit. She is the daughter of a homesteader who survives the trials of single motherhood and goes on to marry a bootlegging cowboy. He fuels and anchors her family with love and bravery.”