Grow Your Writing with Brad
Brad Barkley is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Money, Love (Norton) and Alison’s Automotive Repair Manual (St. Martin’s), named Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post and Library Journal. He’s published two collections of short stories, Circle View and Another Perfect Catastrophe, and his short stories and flash have appeared in more than forty magazines, including Fractured Lit, Flash Frog, The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Oxford American, Glimmer Train, and The Virginia Quarterly Review, which twice awarded him the Balch Prize for Best Fiction. His work has been anthologized in New Stories from the South and noted in Best American Short Stories.
Brad is also the author of three young adult novels, including Scrambled Eggs at Midnight and Dream Factory (Penguin/Dutton), which were recognized by the American Library Association and the New York State Reading Association. His books have been translated into five languages.
He holds a degree in English from UNC-Greensboro and an MFA from the University of Arkansas—the second-oldest MFA program in the country—where he won a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the only student in the program’s history to do so.
Brad has taught creative writing for over thirty years at both the undergraduate and MFA levels, and many of his students have gone on to publish books or enter graduate programs of their own. He has received four Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council. His latest novel, The Reel Life of Zara Kegg, is forthcoming from Regal House Publishing.
He lives in the mountains of Maryland with his wife, Kristin, and their dog, Mille, and is the proud father of two grown children, Lucas and Alex. He is on X (@bradbarkleybook), and more information is available at bradbarkley.com
Work with Brad
Apply to join the mentor’s small group of writers that they will lead through our unique 12 week mentoring and workshopping program.
Decide if Brad is Right for You with Our Mentor Interview
What excites you most about writing?
“Since the first time I wrote my first story, this answer hasn’t changed. Writing is magic—you have 26 letters of the alphabet, and from those little squiggle marks you are able to create whole people with real lives, real problems and human stories. Entire worlds, an emotional response in yourself and in a reader. I’m in the middle of writing my 10th book right now, and this still astounds me, every day. As far as my life goes—I tell this to students as well as myself: if you never published a single word, the very act of writing will make you a better person and give you a better life. Susan Sontag said, “A writer is a person who pays attention to the world,” and you will become that. How many people do we all know who sleepwalk through their lives, dulled by the mundane and self-medicated by too many screens? As a writer you will never become that—you will walk through your life engaging in and collecting moments, fully aware. Also, in developing empathy for your characters, who are not always particularly likeable, you will develop deeper empathy for real, living people who may not always agree with you, or be entirely likeable themselves. Writing has made me a person who gets to slow down, every day, and watch magic happen,” Brad said.
What mindset does a writer need to grow?
“The mindset that matters most is a mix of love, doggedness, and surrender. You have to love the process itself, putting down words, making up people and scenes, revising until you are weary of revising. You have to keep showing up, sentence after sentence, draft after draft, even when the work feels dull or difficult or unnoticed. But just as much, you need humility—the kind that lets you put your ego in a drawer and listen, really listen, to what the story wants, where it’s trying to take you, not what you want from it. The best writers I know aren’t chasing perfection; they’re paying attention. They move through the world with a kind of childlike wonder, letting ordinary things—an overheard phrase, a flicker of doubt, the way a shadow moves—knock them sideways.
And yes, we all have busy lives. Work, kids, appointments, loss, distraction—it’s real. But our lives don’t usually keep us from eating, or bathing, or sleeping. Writing belongs on that list, too. Even one page a day, even fifteen minutes at the kitchen table—that’s enough. The pages add up.
And maybe most important: remember that you are part of a community, and writing is not a race, but a parade. Sometimes you’re out front waving the flag, sometimes you’re sweeping up at the end, but you’re always part of something larger—a messy, glorious, slow-moving celebration of language and truth. And we’re lucky to be in it.”
What three words best describe you as a mentor?
“Insightful. Funny. Supportive.”
What makes a good writing mentor?
“A good writing mentor helps a writer realize the story on its own terms—not by imposing a personal aesthetic, but by offering clarity, encouragement, and honest, thoughtful feedback. It’s less about handing down rules and more about entering into a long conversation: one built on respect, shared love of the work, and the goal of helping the writer move from where they are to where they want to be. A good mentor remembers what it felt like to be new at this and brings that memory to the table with kindness and care.”
What is your style of feedback?
“My feedback is thorough, specific, and tailored to the story in front of me. I use tracked changes at the sentence level to address clarity, rhythm, or mechanics; comments at the paragraph or scene level to flag pacing, tone, or character issues; and then a set of overall remarks to talk more globally about the piece—what’s working, what’s not quite landing yet, and where it might go next. I don’t believe in blanket rules or one-size-fits-all advice. If something’s working, I’ll say so. If it’s not, I’ll try to offer clear, usable suggestions for revision. I approach the work with care and honesty, not ego. I’m not trying to rewrite your story in my voice—I’m trying to help you sharpen and strengthen your own. And I always follow up—by email or phone—just to make sure the feedback lands the way it’s meant to. I want it to feel like a real conversation, not just a return file.”
What was the most recent "standout" book you read?
“The most recent standout for me is Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. I am a little late to the Denis Johnson party, but was drawn to this book after reading his short fiction. I was stunned by Train Dreams, how much life and ache and strangeness he fits into so few pages. The prose is spare but quietly electric, and the emotional reach is enormous. Every page features at least one sentence that’s a genuine surprise. It reminded me that fiction doesn’t have to shout to carry weight—that it can whisper and still echo. I finished it and immediately read it again, just to figure out how he pulled it off.”