Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Barbara is author of the newly released collection of short stories, Pool

Fishing (Kelp Books, 2025). Palm Springs Noir (Akashic, 2021), Barbara edited

and contributed to. Her short story, “Crazy for You,” first published in the

Akashic anthology, Orange County Noir, was chosen for USA noir: Best of the

Akashic Noir Series. Her work has seen print in Coolest American Stories 2022,

Dark City Magazine, Crossing Borders, Shotgun Honey, The Literary Hatchet, Rock

and a Hard Place, Broad River Review, and The Oyez Review. Her first book, Pen

on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within, made the Los

Angeles Times best-seller list and was honored with an American Society of

Journalists and Authors Outstanding Book Award. Her essays have seen print in

Inlandia, The Ocotillo Review, Abstract Expressions, Belle Ombre, Cutbank, The

Author's Guild Bulletin, Beach Reads, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Orange

Coast Magazine, Westways, The Los Angeles Times, The Writer, Writer’s Digest,

and Poets & Writers. Throughout the year she teaches “Pen on Fire” for Gotham

Writers Workshop (online), teaches Advanced Creative Writing at Saddleback

College's Emeritus Institute, and teaches privately. She co-hosts the podcast,

“Writers on Writing.