Wendy Sibbison
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About the Author
Wendy Sibbison was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1946, has degrees in English from Barnard College (B.A. 1968) and Columbia University (M.A. 1969), and studied law at Rutgers Law School-Newark (J.D. 1977). She grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., where her first novel, Helen in Trouble, loosely based on her own experience in high school, takes place. She lives in Western Massachusetts.
Wendy wrote Helen in Trouble to show what it was like in 1963 to be a particular 16-year-old girl trapped in a pregnant body, with no safe or legal way out. Even after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land in 1973, an enraging number of women of all ages, colors and income groups remained trapped like Helen. Now Roe is gone. Abortion is banned in fifteen states, with more to come.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, Wendy practiced law for 35 years, specializing in civil and criminal appeals. In 2010 Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly named her among the most influential lawyers in the state, a list which included Gov. Deval Patrick, Attorney General Martha Coakley, and U.S. Sen. John Kerry. For many years she was named a “Super Lawyer” in Boston Magazine and included in the publication Best Lawyers in America. Honors over the course of her career included the Duggan Award (Committee for Public Counsel Services) for outstanding legal services to the poor; the President’s Award (Massachusetts Bar Foundation) for tireless advocacy on behalf of legal aid providers; and the Brownlow Speer Award (Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) for excellence in appellate advocacy in the defense of the accused.