Sondra Helene is the author of Appearances, an award winning book that earned acclaim from the prestigious Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She is a board member and writer at GrubStreet, Boston's center for literary life. Appearances is her first novel. She is a graduate of Ithaca College and has a master's degree from Columbia University. She has studied fiction and nonfiction at GrubStreet, Gotham Writers Workshop, The Sirenland Writers conference, Fine Arts Work Center and Kripalu. She writes about family relationships, sisters, marriage and grief. Sondra is a past president of The Friends of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a fundraising arm of the hospital. She's also chaired fundraisers for Massachusetts General Hospital and the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. She loves the beach and the mountains. She has two grown children and lives near Boston with her husband and two poodles.