Martha Barron Barrett

Growing up in a 1930's suburb of woods and fields outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, independence--and reading--came easily. After graduation from Mt. Lebanon High School, Martha attended the University of Maine at Orono. She studied history and government--an interest she continued by earning a master's degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia while teaching at the Charles E. Ellis School for Girls.

Her passion for writing has remained constant. Feature articles in Yankee Magazine, about sardine fishing and blueberry harvesting, were her first nationally published works. Two successful novels and a nonfiction book followed, as well as years as a newspaper columnist for Portsmouth Magazine and the Ellsworth American in Maine. She taught creative writing courses for adults for twenty years at the University of New Hampshire: as a visiting professor at the University of Washington, Spokane and at numerous conferences, including Molasses Pond in Maine and New Hampshire.

Martha was married in 1954 and raised two sons and a daughter; her family now numbers fourteen. Her home is with her partner, Sandy, and cat. Schoodic, on the far downeast coast of Maine, and, when not traveling, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.