BIO

Barb Howard has been publishing short stories, essays, and books since 1993. She is a former lawyer who has been President of the Writers' Guild of Alberta, Writer-in-Residence for the Calgary Public Library, and editor of FreeFall Magazine. She taught Creative Writing at the University of Calgary, the Alexandra Writers’ Centre, the Banff Centre and at various grade schools and conferences.

Barb’s most recent book is Happy Sands, a literary “beach read” published in the Brave and Brilliant series from University of Calgary Press. Happy Sands was shortlisted as Alberta Trade Fiction Book of the Year at the 2022 Alberta Book Publishing Awards, and recognized by CBC as a book to watch for in the fall of 2021 and one of 23 funny books for your holiday shopping. Barb’s 2012 short story collection Western Taxidermy won the Canadian Authors' Association Exporting Alberta Award and was a finalist at the international 2013 High Plains Book Awards. Her work has been shortlisted 4 times for Alberta Literary Awards, and she won the 2009 Howard O'Hagan Award for Short Story. Barb's fiction and nonfiction has been published on beer cans and in magazines, journals, and anthologies across Canada including Grain, The New Quarterly, The Dalhousie Review, Room, Alberta Views and Canadian Lawyer.

In addition to Happy Sands and Western Taxidermy, Barb's book-length works of fiction include Notes For Monday, Whipstock  and The Dewpoint Show. She is co-editor of, and contributor to, the 2012 nonfiction anthology Embedded on the Home Front: Where Military and Civilian Lives Converge.

Barb has a BA (Canadian Literature) from UBC, a law degree from Dalhousie, and an MA (Creative Writing) from the University of Calgary. She regularly hikes, bikes, and skis in the Rockies and Alberta foothills, and plays her piano at home in Moh’kinsstis/Calgary.

For more on Barb check out the 2023 Calgary Guardian article A Day in the Life of Barb Howard, or her 2017 essay in BioStories Magazine Law Story  (page 132), or her 2023 YouTube interview with Shawn the Book Maniac, or her 2022 interview on Rob Mclennan’s blog