About Barbara

Barbara Riddle’s trajectory from a blissfully bohemian childhood in Greenwich Village to Reed College and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Brandeis University was a relatively straight line that disintegrated completely when she abandoned the dream of a scientific career in favor of the mundane (and difficult) realities of life as a writer.

Barbara has never regretted that decision—the joys are worth the uncertainty. For more about her, please see the excerpts of Barbara’s memoir. Barbara’s debut novel, The Girl Pretending to Read Rilke, is a coming-of-age story about a young woman in a lab during the frenetic early days of molecular genetics. It was called “Sharply funny,” by writer Barbara Ehrenreich, who knows from experience what it was like. An award-winning screenplay version by writer/director Laramie Dennis is in development.

Currently she is seeking a publisher for her just completed novel, Too Many Countries. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Czech émigré filmmaker Tonda Menzel and his American wife Cait return to Prague and a shocking accusation makes Cait wonder if Tonda is really the man she thought she knew when she fell madly in love 5 years prior. Can their volatile relationship survive yet another shock? How much self-sacrifice should marriage require?

Uniting her passions, Barbara recently accepted a position as Guest Fiction Editor of the journal Please See Me, devoted to improving communication between health care providers and patients through fiction, poetry and nonfiction narratives that connect us as humans in all our glorious diversity.

Barbara Riddle welcomes queries regarding:

Agent Representation

Events & Signings

Film Rights

Publication

Media Coverage

Networking

CONTACT

Although Riddle’s narrative is often humorous and frequently quirky, it also offers a stark reminder of the scientific community’s treatment of women joining its ranks in the ’60s […] A whimsical, funny and poignant historical novel.

– Kirkus Reviews

AWARDS, PRESS & INTERESTS

Named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2019 and Best Indie Debut Novels of 2019: THE GIRL PRETENDING TO READ RILKE (Visit Barbara’s Kirkus Author Profile)

Hometown New York City

Favorite book Member of the Wedding

Day job ESL teacher

Favorite word plinth

Unexpected skill or talent Improv comedy

Passion in life The English language

PRESS