Helen Peppe, author of Pigs Can't Swim
Helen directing riders and horses at Gooserocks Beach
Helen with her son, Alex
Helen with King Rocky
(Owned by Katherine Pears)
Picture by Mary Fournier
Helen Peppe is a professional writer and photographer (primarily equine). The former editor of Eastern Equerry and Wordplay Magazine, her short stories, articles, and photographs have appeared in a myriad of anthologies, books, and magazines, including Practical Horseman, Equus, American Trakehner, Arabian Horse Times, Dog Fancy, Dog World, Dressage Today, Equine Journal, The Horse, Lynx Eye, Mused Literary Review, Cats Magazine, and The Good Men Project. Several of her short stories and photographs appear in text books and educational media. She is the author of the limited edition Live on Stage: A History of the State Theater and creator of the Maine Stable Guide, published annually 1995-2005.
Helen Peppe's "Pigs Can't Swim" Inspires — NickerNews BLOG
Pigs Can't Swim has been shortlisted for the New England Book
Award in Nonfiction by the New England Independent Booksellers Association.
My talented fellow finalists in the nonfiction genre are A
Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren, Can't We Talk About Something
More Pleasant? by Roz Chast, Mud Season by Ellen Stimson, and
Love & Fury by Richard Hoffman.
I've read their books and can't believe my memoir is among them.
Helen's photography and written work have received numerous awards and recognition, including placing first in the 2009 Word Worth Essay and Fiction Contest, and The Starving Writer Literary contest twice. She was one of seven finalists for the 2011 Annie Dillard Creative Nonfiction Award, as well as a Maine Literary Awards repeat finalist. In the nineties and early 2000s, she focused primarily on writing for equine publications, homeschooling her children, teaching creative writing, and running her husband's business. In 2009, she decided to return to school and earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine where she returns as an alumna to teach and photograph. Helen's debut memoir, Pigs Can't Swim, is a 2014 Indie Introduce Title and will be out February 2014 by Da Capo Press. She lives with her husband, children, dogs and horses in the Portland area and is happy to speak to book clubs, writing groups, and at photography events.
To see her photography work, go to Helen Peppe Photography on Facebook and Dungarvan Feather.
Helen is currently working on a YA novel about a girl and her friend rescuing a Nakota mare and she is writing her second memoir, Chasing the Light, which spans her adult life as a professional photographing horses and dogs.
“Pigs Can't Swim is a marvelously funny,
moving and spirited memoir,
likely destined to become a classic in the genre.”
—David Mura, author of Turning Japanese
For review copies and publicity inquiries, contact: [email protected].
If you would like Helen Peppe to speak at your book club or to give a reading, contact: [email protected] or 207-591-5521.
If you would like to schedule a photo shoot, call or email Helen at the above.
To read more about Pigs Can't Swim, go to PigsCantSwim.com.
To see more of Helen's photography, see Helen Peppe Photography on Facebook
Her agent is Wendy Strothman of The Strothman Agency.
