Lois Barr

Poet

Riverwoods, IL
Illinois US

Author's Bio

With a Ph.D. in Spanish from University of Kentucky and an M.A. from Middlebury College, Lois Baer Barr is an emerita professor at Lake Forest College. She currently tutors for Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America in Chicago. 

The Tailor's Daughter, her new novel, is available from Water's Edge Press. Her chapbooks are: Tracks: Poems on the "L" (4th prize, Finishing Line Press), Biopoesis ( Poetica Magazine’s first prize), and Lope de Vega’s Daughter, a fiction chapbook (Red Bird Press).  She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in poetry and fiction and was a finalist for the Rita Dove Poetry Prize in 2019.  She has participated in Torah Study and exhibits with artists and writers at the Artist Beit Midrash of  Beth El Synagogue of Highland Park, Illinois for five summers.  Barr conducts poetry workshops for all ages and returned to Lake Forest to teach Spanish for Creative Writing in the fall of 2019.  She has judged teen poetry contests for Waukegan, Zion and North Chicago for many years and will be judging the the 2024 Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Contest. 

Publications & Prizes

Book:
The Tailor's Daughter (Water's Edge Press, 2023)
Chapbook:
Biopoesis (Poetica Publishing Company, 2014)
Journals:
Alimentum
, ,
Mochila Review
, ,
Southern Women's Review
,
Prizes won: 

Tracks: Poems on the "L," Finishing Line Press, finalist, New Voices Contest 2023. 

"War Stories, nominated for Pushcart Prize in Fiction, 2011

"Biopoesis," nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry, 2012

Biopoesis, First Prize, Poetica Magazine Chapbook Award, 2014

"Jacob Lawrence's Vision," Semifinalist for Charter Oak Prize 2018

"Hagar," Finalist for Rita Dove Prize, Center for Women Writers, 2019

 

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Lydia Davis Amin Ahmad Ayad Akhtar Yehuda Amichai
What I'm reading now: 
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar, The Amen Stone by Yehuda Amichai, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
Jewish
Prefers to work with: 
Adults, Children, Teenagers
Fluent in: 
English, Spanish
Born in: 
Louisville, KY
Kentucky
Raised in: 
Louisville, KY
Kentucky
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Dec 22, 2023