Elizabeth Barrette
Elizabeth Barrette lives in Illinois with her partner, Doug. An avid wordsmith, she works as a writer and editor, doing poetry, articles, essays, reviews, interviews, short stories, and more. Her main fields include speculative fiction, gender studies, environmental/social issues, and alternative spirituality. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Rhetoric with a Women’s Studies minor from the English Department at the University of Illinois.
Her wordsmithing work has taken many forms. She wrote the articles "Balancing Powers" in Communities, “Anthimeria: Verbing Weirds Language” in Sol Magazine, and "Appreciating Speculative Poetry" and "Do Women and Men Really Write Differently?" in Internet Review of Science Fiction. Honors include winning the Sol Magazine Poet Laureate Competition (2003), Left Coast Eisteddfod Poetry Competition (2009), Dwarf Stars Award (2010), and Rose & Bay Award: Poetry (2010); plus six poems nominated for the Rhysling Award (2005, 2007, 2010). Elizabeth Barrette served as Managing Editor of PanGaia for eight years and Dean of Studies at the Grey School of Wizardry for four years. She currently sits on the canon board for Torn World. She has edited over a dozen books including novels, short story collections, and nonfiction.
She has published hundreds of poems, dozens of articles, and dozens of short stories. Her writing has appeared in numerous periodicals including Apex, The Blessed Bee, Capper’s, Cicada, CIRCLE, Doorways, Eggplant Library, EMG-zine, Five Feathers, Fortress, Green Prints, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Horror Writers Association Newsletter, the Llewellyn annuals, The Lorelei Signal, The Mid-America Poetry Review, Mytholog, Nature’s Song, Noneuclidean Café, Passion for Poetry, SageWoman, Sol Magazine, Strong Verse, and the Wiccan/Pagan Times. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies The 2010 Rhysling Anthology, Companion for the Apprentice Wizard, [Book: Creative Community Collected Comics Pages], Genderflex, The Goddess in Each of Us, The Impossible Will Take A Little While, and Pagan Muse Short Fiction Anthology Volume 2.
Elizabeth Barrette supports small press and electronic publication, crowdfunding, and communal living. She hosts a monthly Poetry Fishbowl on her LiveJournal, The Wordsmith’s Forge. She enjoys presenting panels and workshops at science fiction conventions, Pagan festivals, and other events. Her favorite pastimes include gardening for wildlife, photography, and studying obscure languages.
“Water in the Desert”:“No desolation is so totalthat it cannot contain somewhere,concealed and singing,a drop of life.”
“Alpenglow”:“Even the rainbow never dreamed of this:The touch of lastlight on snowy shoulders,The kiss of dawn on crystal lips,A rush of rarest red welling up to fill the mighty skyWith splendor.”
“A Tangible Reminder”:“Underfoot rustling unsilent leavesCrackle electric ecstasySpice the autumn air,A tangible reminderThat death can be a glory.”
“Twilight Surprise” poem:“The sky burns down,A rim of coals glowing gold and red,Limned with orange againAnd kissed with hints of pink.The clouds reflect tangerine and plum,Overshadowing the silent glory.Darkness and light,Balanced upon this equinox,Dance together like old lovers …… and beget beauty.”
“Wondering When the Strings Will Snap” poem:“The marigolds herald autumn’s colors alreadyIn their sun-shrine faces, iconographicFloral worship of their distant deity -- yet theyDie at the first touch of frost, unlike chrysanthemums,The true flowers of fall.”
“Campfire Companions” poem:“What a longing they touched in me! Ah,would that I could lose myself in the wilderness,become a ghost of smoke and shadow,moving so subtly through the lucid moonlightthat all my edges wore away.”
“From the book From Nature’s Patient Hands by Elizabeth Barrette (“The Nature of Poetry, and Vice Versa” section):” Walk as if nothing is chasing you. Watch as if nothing is afraid of you. Write as if you have nothing else in the universe to do.”