Helen Phillips is an American novelist known for her diverse and captivating body of work, which includes five books. Her novel, The Need, has garnered widespread attention. Phillips' collection Some Possible Solutions was awarded the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award.

Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat was not only a New York Times Notable Book of 2015 but also a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Another collection of her stories, And Yet They Were Happy, was recognized as a Notable Book by the Story Prize.

Additionally, Phillips has ventured into children's literature with her adventure novel Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green. Her literary accomplishments include receiving a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and the Italo Calvino Prize. Helen's work has been featured in esteemed publications such as The Atlantic, the New York Times, and Tin House, and her stories have been selected for Selected Shorts.