Helena Worthen is a novelist, union activist, and retired contingent faculty worker. Her book, What Did You Learn at Work Today? The Forbidden Lessons of Labor Education (Hardball, 2013) won the 2014 Best Book award from the United Association for Labor Education. She is the co-author of and Power Despite Precarity: Strategies for the Contingent Faculty Movement in Higher Education (Pluto Press, 2021).