By Lauren Moore
Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum in Montgomery, never planned to write a book of poems on Helen Keller. In 2016 she did just that, publishing “The Myth of Water.”
The poetry collection, a culmination of a decade of Thompson’s work, paints pictures through the mind of Helen Keller. Thompson created the collection using a writing style called persona poetry, where the writer takes on another person’s voice and makes it their own.
The book is getting a fresh look (and its author getting new opportunities to speak on it) as Keller is among the icons being acknowledged during the state’s bicentennial celebration.“I’m from Decatur, which as the crow flies is 70 miles east of Tuscumbia, where Helen Keller was born,” Thompson said. “When I was growing up, I read about her in Alabama history, I knew about her, but I had no pull to Helen Keller.”
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