 Photo by J. Tomás López Writer, Editor, Teacher
To see some of the independent bookstores where readers have found or ordered Magpies, check out the Publications Page.
If you would like a signed copy, they are available from Miami's great Books & Books, 305-442-4408.  |
The latest...
"Millinery," a creative nonfiction piece, is forthcoming in the next issue of the Southern Women's Review. "Morning Glories" is in Fifteen Views of Miami, a collection of lightly linked stories, just published by Burrow Press. On January 19th, I was among those reading from and discussing the project at Books & Books in Coral Gables, FL. You can still see and hear the event, featuring editor Jaquira Diaz and contributors John Dufresne, M.J. Fievre, M. Evelina Galang, Geoffrey Philp, and me, via the Books & Books website. &
"Dancing in the Dark" appears in Trouble in the Heartland: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen, just published by Gutter Books Dec. 1, 2014. (Part of the proceeds benefit the Bob Woodruff Foundation.) Read more about the project, from editor Joe Clifford. (Cover by Chuck Regan of Zelmer Pulp.) Women of Florida Fiction:
Women of Florida Fiction, Essays on 12 Sunshine State Writers, edited by Tammy Powley and April Van Camp is just out from McFarland. "Florida as symbol and myth is the subject of this collection of new critical essays exploring fiction written by female Floridian authors."
There is a chapter by scholar Claudia Slate on the stories in Magpies and the book’s final section includes interviews with authors Lynne Barrett, Jeannine Capó Cruz, Vicki Hendricks and Angela Hunt. More short story news:
The Editors of Wraparound South have nominated "The Tree Man" for Sundress Publications' Best of the Net anthology, and the Pushcart Prize.
"The Tree Man" was published in June in Wraparound South. Read it here. 
"Mary Anne's Tan," is featured in Fort Lauderdale Magazine (read it online here). Illustration for "Mary Anne's Tan," Fort Lauderdale Magazine Upcoming Events
Spring & Summer 2015
I'll be speaking at the AWP Conference in Minneapolis, MN, April 9-11. I'm on two panels: A Thread Through the Labyrinth: Learning and Teaching Plot (April 9, noon) & Rock and Prose: Musician/Fiction Writers Reflect at the Crossroads (April 11, 1:30) I'll be teaching two workshops at the Grub Street Muse & the Marketplace Conference, May 1-3, in Boston, MA. The full conference schedule is now online. I will be teaching a 3 day workshop on plot and structure for the Miami Writers Institute, May 6-9, sponsored by the Florida Center for Literature and Writing at Miami Dade College. And I'll be teaching at the International Women's Writing Guild Summer Conference, July 24-31 in Litchfield, CT. Recent Events:
I spoke about "Crossing Paths: Story and the Map of Opportunity at the Carlow University Low Residency MFA program in Pittsburgh, PA January 7th. Nov. 16-23, I led The Florida Book Review live-blog of Miami Book Fair International. And I was part of a reading, celebration, and broadsheet giveaway Saturday Nov. 22 at 12:30 in The Swamp, Miami Book Fair's new pop-up venue at the Street fair. Read more about the event and The Sweat Broadsheet Artist & Writers Collaborative project in this piece in the Miami New Times.  The Tree Man, broadsheet collaboration by Pip Brandt and Lynne Barrett
As part of the Sweat II Broadsheet Collaboration, Sara Stites and Pip Brandt each produced a broadsheet using texts I wrote. More on the project here and in this piece in the Miami New Times. To see more details about upcoming book group meetings, workshops, and conferences, please go to the Events page. You can see photos and posters from my adventures on the literary trail on the Scrapbook page. Around the web
I was among those who took part in a discussion of "Submitting Etiquette" for The Review Review.
Geoffrey Philp interviewed me for his blog about the writing life and the class I'm teaching in Literary Journalism. Laura Valeri interviewed me for Bookslut. You can hear me reading my poem "Polylingual" at the start of this short slideshow about the WLRN and O Miami Poetry Festival "That's So Miami" project. Just follow this link and scroll down. Other publications
My short story, "Conchology," was published in the Spring 2013 issue of Real South Magazine. An essay I wrote about the rise, fall, and rise again of Biscayne Boulevard appeared in the Spring issue of FORUM, the Florida Humanities Council magazine, in their series on writers' favorite places. left: Spring issue of FORUM, Florida Humanities Council Magpies ~ Gold Medal, Florida Book Awards
Selected for the Current Voices In Literature Program, 2013-14, by the Center for Literature and Theatre at Miami Dade College. Publishers Weekly says of Magpies: "Barrett portrays adult lives with minimal flourishes and a powerful command of setting. Florida is electric with the tension of "all that can happen"—hurricanes, sinkholes, and a boom-and-bust history. It becomes as eerie as it is richly imagined, whether stories take place in an Art Deco building or a gas station. One of the year's finer university press offerings..." In The Rumpus, Joseph Olshan writes: "Sentence for sentence, Barrett is a superb writer. Her work brims with original ideas, questions and philosophical musings, the product of a probing intelligence and a highly literate sensibility. But what separates her from many contemporary short fiction writers is her consummate story-telling ability." Chauncey Mabe asks "Why does Lynne Barrett hate me?" in his review. Melissa Slayton in the Apalachee Review says, "Fans of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad or Tony Earley’s Here We Are in Paradise will enjoy Lynne Barrett’s third collection of short stories, which won the Florida Book Awards Gold Medal for General Fiction. Barrett’s aesthetic blends a wry take on contemporary American culture with a unique awareness of the Florida landscape. Within this book, one is as likely to encounter an overwrought editor as a sink hole, a gossip columnist as a tropical depression....This collection is tightly crafted yet eclectic." Emma Trelles says Magpies is "an assemblage of delightfully strange stories" in her New Times list of best things about Miami. Featured in LitBridge. The book launch at Books & Books in Coral Gables, FL is described in this great blog by Geoffrey Philp. Magpies is published by Carnegie Mellon University Press and distributed via University Press of New England. For more about the book, see the Magpies page. And while there, learn about Sterling Mulbry, the artist whose painting is on the cover. Info about the Florida Book Awards here. WLRN Topical Currents Interview
You can hear my conversation with Ariel Gonzalez on WLRN's Topical Currents by going to the About Lynne page or download the full show's MP3 here.
Conversations around the web
"Angles of Belonging," my guest blog about having grown up in NJ, being a "Florida writer," and the many ways characters can connect to place, is at Lisa Romeo Writes.
Dena Santoro has written an appreciation of the (bad) girls in my short stories, at Like Fire. At The Writerly Life, Gerry Wilson and I discuss thinking about a story's edges and the ever-challenging issue of trying to get too many things done. Necee Regis interviewed me about Magpies (and compared reading the collection to eating Belgian chocolates) at Beyond the Margins. On Casey Pycior's blog, The Story is the Cure, we discussed, among other things, my story "Links" and unanticipated consequences of writing about the dot com world. Laura Richardson interviewed me about Magpies, plot, editing, and much more for Sliver of Stone Magazine. Angela Kelsey has done a four-part (they're short!) interview with me on her blog. Topics covered include how suspense is created in literary stories, and tips for writers. Teaching
I teach in the Creative Writing program in FIU's English Dept, and often speak at writers' conferences around the country. I'm immensely proud of my students, and you can read about some of their many achievements on my Teaching Page. I was honored to be chosen as one of the 2012 Florida International University Top Scholars, and to be featured in a full-page ad for the university in the Miami Herald. In 2011 I received an FIU Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentorship, and I previously received one for Excellence in Research. With FIU President Mark Rosenberg at the 2012 Top Scholars Reception, April 2012. Other projects:
As editor of Tigertail, A South Florida Annual: Florida Flash, I looked for very short prose works to explore the edges and overlaps between lyrical and narrative approaches. Fifty-four authors with connections to Florida contributed prose poetry, flash fiction, and flash nonfiction of no more than 305 words—a number representing the original South Florida area code.
More about the collection, and the radio contest it inspired, on the Works Edited page. "What Editors Want"
Glimmer Train republished "What Editors Want" in their Bulletin of Sept. 1, 2011. When The Review Review published "What Editors Want," an essay about the submission process, it "went viral." As editor Becky Tuch reported in their weekly newsletter: "Over at The Review Review, things have been more than a little insane. For one thing, Lynne Barrett's article... 'What Editors Want...' spread around the globe and back, earning us coverage in the L.A. Times and The New Yorker. Yeah, we were pretty excited."
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