Victoria Barrett's short stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Confrontation, The Massachusetts Review, Puerto del Sol, and You Must Be This Tall To Ride. She is the recipient of two Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist Awards and a Summer Salary Grant from Ball State University, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and had the privilege of studying writing with a bunch of amazing people at New Mexico State University, where she earned an MFA in fiction writing. She teaches writing at Ball State University and the Writers' Center of Indiana and lives in Irvington, a neighborhood in Indianapolis where the streets are named after writers, with her husband, Andrew Scott, and their two cats. A two-tone image of Washington Irving's floating head adorns the historic neighborhood sign on her front porch.
Her novel, Four Points Gin, has been supported by two grants and is currently being revised, yet again, one more time. The next two projects, novels Mrs. Boone County and Ghost Road, are already brewing.
TEACHING
Victoria has taught freshman comp and creative writing at Ball State University since 2004. Before that, she taught freshman comp, business, writing, writing about literature, and creative writing at New Mexico State. She tries very hard to teach the way she would like to be taught, and is usually sad about how little time she spends with her students, compared with how much she spends grading.
EDITING
Engine Books is a boutique fiction press established in January 2011. Victoria is the founder, editor, and publisher. The press features close editing, great design, and focused promotion. Current titles include Other Heartbreaks: Stories by Patricia Henley, On the Outskirts of Normal: a Memoir by Debra Monroe, and Shambles: a Novel, also by Debra Monroe. In 2012, watch for Echolocation: a Novel by Myfanwy Collins, Into This World: a Novel by Sybil Baker, and Half as Happy: Stories by Gregory Spatz. Learn more about the press and buy books at enginebooks.org.
Freight Stories is the work of two editors, Victoria Barrett and Andrew Scott. They believe that great fiction of all lengths and styles—not just short, "experimental" work—belongs online, free to readers. Freight Stories publishes approximately 36 works of fiction (stories, novel excerpts, novellas, what-have-you) each year, and has published the work of many award-winning, established writers alongside that of undiscovered and previously unpublished ones.
