Natalya Barker

Natalya Barker was born in Bristol, England, grew up in upstate New York, and now makes her home with her husband and preschool-age son the tiny town of Saxapahaw, North Carolina. After nearly a decade of focus on commercial writing and editing, she is returning to the literary realm as she balances parenting with a life of activism and creative expression. When she isn’t toddler-wrangling or writing, she chairs the board of an arts and environmental charter school and serves on the executive boards of her county’s NAACP and Democratic Women chapters. She holds an MA in liberal studies from Duke University, where she focused on the role of literature in understanding critical social issues, as well as a BA English literature with writing foundation from Skidmore College. Her writing focuses on the intersection of literature and social justice, and has explored such areas as punitive justice, exile, and altruism. She has spoken at a number academic conferences, including twice at the Association for Graduate Liberal Studies’ National Conference. Her most recent publication was In Exilium: The Language and Experience of Exile.