Alison Barker, or Ms. Barker to the legions of young minds she’s shaped during fourteen years as a primary, middle school and college teacher, is a writer and critic who currently lives in New Orleans. Her work has appeared in Switchback, Monkeybicycle, Fwriction: Review, Ravenna Press’ Anemone Sidecar, Front Porch, Columbia Journal of Art and Literature, dislocate. Fiction, nonfiction, and theater reviews appear in Bitch, Paste Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Reader, Rain Taxi, Bookslut, and soon in Los Angeles Review of Books. She enjoys new places and faces, indefatigably drawing connections between people, places, ideas, and good coffee.