Jo Barney

After graduating from Willamette University, I spent the most of next thirty years teaching, counseling, mothering, wifing and of course, writing.

My work has been published in literary magazines, mainstream publications, and professional journals. Several of my short stories have won awards.

Lately, I have concentrated on longer projects and at this point, I've completed six novels. The first, Wednesday Club, uses my teaching life as inspiration, the second, Hat Trick, my prodigal son, the hockey player, and the third, Solarium, takes a close look at friendship. The Graffiti Grandma, a thriller, examines the need, in even the most disturbed of us, for family. This fall Edith will tell of an older woman, a recent widow, who discovers her husband had secrets, clues of which she finds in his pockets. Soon, my latest book, about women, marriage, and the damages of war on families, will be published. Its title is Hedges, a reference to the barriers we build around ourselves.

These stories and essays, as well as the novels, reflect my observations of women's lives and the people who inhabit them: children, husbands, parents, friends, strangers who happen by and change everything.