Bio for Lisa Barstow

New York City native Lisa Barstow earned her BA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. Trained as a writing workshop facilitator in the AMA Method at Amherst Writers and Artists in Amherst, Massachusetts, she has led AMA workshops and retreats in Maine for over two decades. Her own essays and poems have been featured in numerous publications from New England to Hawaii, where she lived for several years. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, Poems from the Heart, and created In the Company of Women: Women’s Musings on Elderhood, an anthology written in collaboration with other women over the age of 50 about the trials and blessings of conscious aging.

Her 2009 memoir, Don’t Go Back to Sleep, recalled her privileged upbringing in Manhattan during the halcyon days of the 1950’s. Nannies, debutante cotillions, trips to Europe and social summers on the coast of Maine kept her in a “box” that shielded her from the rest of the world. By early adulthood, that container began to fall apart. Her parents' divorce, alcoholism, cancer battles and early deaths brought painful losses and a new perspective—one that propelled her into the second half of life better prepared for change.

Lisa’s latest book continues the story. Where the Two Worlds Touch is her own mythical journey of exploration, self-discovery, and transformation. Guided toward connection and purpose through study, travel, and by generous teachers along the way, her increasing awareness of the presence of the unseen spiritual world and a deep devotion to the expansion of consciousness in the second half of life has led her to the witness within. Elderhood has opened her heart to Self.

Lisa lives along the coast in Southern Maine with her husband Bill Stepchew. Online at www.lisabarstow.com.