BARBARA SHOUP,
AUTHOR & EDUCATOR

BRIEF BIO

		Barbara is the author of three young adult novels (Stranded in Harmony, Wish You Were Here, and Vermeer’s Daughter—all multiple award winners, including the notable ALA and VOYA)—and of a forthcoming teen novel, Everything You Want (Flux). Barbara is also a literary magazine editor and the co-author of Story Matters and Novel Ideas. In the past 30 years, she has taught diverse writing courses at nationwide high schools and universities to more than one thousand students. Visit Barbara’s website.
Barbara’s comment: “The Doobie Brothers said it best: ‘You’ll always have a chance to give up, so why do it now?’”

EDUCATION

• B.S. degree in Elementary Education; Indiana University
• M.S. degree in Secondary Education; Indiana University

TEACHING EXPERIENCE (1980 - present)

• In Indiana, Broad Ripple High School Center for the Humanities and the Performing Arts (20 years): Writer-in-Residence; Independent Study creative writing teacher and mentor to writing teachers
  
  
• The National Conference of Teachers of English, the University of New Hampshire, Indiana Teachers of Writing, and the National Writing Project: Speaker and workshop leader
  
  
• Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis: Associate faculty member (taught Introduction to Creative Writing and Creative Writing for Teachers)
  
  
• Butler University, Associate Faculty and Literary Fellow: Taught fiction-writing, community classes in the novel, and creative writing workshops for high school teachers.
  
  
• University of Mississippi, Northwestern Michigan College and the Writers’ Center of Indiana: Led “Novel Ideas” Workshops. Individually and with her co-author, Margaret-Love Denman, Shoup has taught nationwide “Novel Idea” workshops based on their book, Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process (Houghton Mifflin College Division).

TESTIMONIALS

  “As Director of the Indiana Teachers of Writing (ITW) Writing Project, I’ve hired Barbara to do summer institutes for teachers. Courses have included expository/creative writing, developing characters for fiction, and a collage-writing workshop. Her interactive sessions blend presentation, writing, discussion and reading. Barb adapts her presentations to the audience. She has worked with many teachers and students, so she knows which techniques and strategies are most helpful.

“I especially enjoy Barb’s sense of humor. She is modest, yet confident. I never hesitate to recommend Barb’s courses. Among Indiana students and English teachers, she’s a favorite!” — Steve Fox; Director, English Department Writing Program; Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis

  I’ve worked with Barbara Shoup at Other Voices since 1995. She has been a top-level contributing editor at this award-winning, 23-year-old literary magazine nearly since its 1984 inception. Before and during my editorship, Barbara contributed more major interviews (featuring prominent literary figures) to our publication than has any other writer.” — Gina Frangello; Executive Editor, Other Voices

  “Three years ago I first observed Barbara Shoup directing a session of The Writers of Glencoe—a weekly group of 50 talented authors, mainly fiction writers. Barb moderates two or more sessions every year. Generous with her skills and warm in spirit, she is an accomplished practitioner with an extraordinary talent for conveying her craft.

“Barb’s critiques of our members’ manuscripts are small masterpieces of instruction. She provides analysis of the text and strategies for improvement. Her rapport with writers is unique and refreshing. She is clearly a favorite among the distinguished moderators we invite and ask to return—in fact, last year we scheduled an extra workshop in novel writing specifically for her to lead. It filled immediately and was a great success. A terrific writer and teacher, Barb is the source of insights, techniques and strategies that transform our work. — Joan Corwin; The Writers of Glencoe, Illinois

HONORS, AWARDS

In 2006, Barbara Shoup was awarded the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. In three of the past six years, she received the Indiana Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Program Grant, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

In addition, her novels have garnered the following awards:

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