On December 10th 2009, The Washington Post
published a front-page profile of Helena that was hugely popular and
prompted responses from The Huffington Post, Jezebel, and Racialicious.
In the article, “Single Minded Success,” Helena explained her work,
life and love: “What I am trying to say about single black women is,
you don't know them as well as you think you do. They may not know
themselves as well as they think they do.”
Her first book, a memoir told in parts titled Bitch Is the New Black, chronicles
Helena’s journey from the kidnapped daughter of the town lesbian to the
Washington reporter who can’t remember a single senator’s name, to the
girl who runs her love life on G-chat. “I’m pretty much pants-ing
myself here,” says Helena about Bitch Is the New Black,
“daring folks to look at the hole-ly Hanes of my life as a metaphor for
the rest of the women who look like me or think like me.”
The film rights to Bitch Is the New Black have already been optioned by Grey's Anatomy
creator Shonda Rhimes, who will produce the project for Fox Searchlight
Pictures. Helena will write the screenplay. Rhimes called the book
“outrageously funny and heartbreakingly honest.” Don't miss your chance to meet this hilarious and provocative author.