Brunonia Barry
Brunonia Barry is the New York Times and international best selling author of THE LACE READER, THE MAP OF TRUE PLACES, and THE FIFTH PETAL, which will be released in January 2017. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She was the first American author to win the International Women’s Fiction Festival’s Baccante Award and was a past recipient of Ragdale Artists’ Colony’s Strnad Fellowship as well as the winner of New England Book Festival’s award for Best Fiction, a People Magazine Pick, and Amazon’s Best of the Month. Her reviews and articles on writing have appeared in The London Times, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. She is a regular contributor to Writer Unboxed. Brunonia chairs the Salem Athenaeum’s Writers’ Committee and serves on Grub Street’s Development Committee. She is the Executive Director of the Salem Lit Fest, an annual event that brings people to Salem, MA from all over the world. She lives in Salem with her husband, Gary, and their dog, Angel.
“I realize the selfishness of children. We love them, and we revolve around their universe, but they don't revolve around ours.”
“If you had done your calculations properly, there would be a moment when you found that the star you were looking for was exactly where it should be on the horizon. In that instant the universe made sense, and you knew no matter what else happened in the world, the stars would always tell you where you were, and when they did, you would always be able to find your way home.”
“Nevertheless . . was a word, certainly, but much more than a word, it was a concept. "Nevertheless" was what you said when you were not going to budge, whether expressing an opinion or an intention. It was a statement, not a question, and the only word in the English language to which it was pointless to respond. If you wanted to end a conversation or an argument "nevertheless" was your word.”
“There is lace in every living thing: the bare branches of winter, the patterns of clouds, the surface of water as it ripples in the breeze.... Even a wild dog's matted fur shows a lacy pattern if you look at it closely enough.”
“I'll pit my God against your god any day, I say to the Calvinists. It's not their god I'm praying to.... The God I'm praying to is neither male nor female. My God is the one who exists apart from all of men's agendas, the God who takes you away when there is no possible place you can go.”