Amanda Barusch
Exploring Everyday Miracles Through Captivating Narratives
Amanda grew up in a one-horse town called Hemet in Southern California. Her dad grew alfalfa and cleared manure from local dairies.
A bookish child, she recognized early on that when reading, she could be anyone, anywhere, anytime. Instead of one best life, she could have hundreds.
Amanda loves
talking with people of all ages, backgrounds, and inclinations. She loves the brain meld that comes after a long conversation and enables two people to marvel together at the beauty, the hurt, the joy, and the complexity of being human.
Today, Amanda writes captivating narratives about everyday miracles and regular folks. She has studied the human condition using a range of techniques. Whenever she thinks she has something figured out, she writes about it and that makes her realize how much she doesn't know. Within her small stable of non-fiction books, she is especially proud of the three that are based on life history interviews with older adults.
Amanda always thought
she would grow up to be one of those wise old professors, beloved of students, who peopled the colleges she attended.
Her darkest moment came when it became clear that the new boss at the university where she had worked for over three decades decided it was time for her to go. Amanda did leave. Then, when that didn't make the pain, humiliation, and rage go away; she wrote a book about it: Aging Angry (released mid-2023).
Now free of institutional
constraints,
Amanda teaches at various universities and correctional facilities. (She finds the latter more interesting.) She has also turned to writing fiction. Several of her short stories have been anthologized, and one called “Once” was nominated for the Braddock Avenue Books Best Short Fictions Award. She is working on her “metamorphosis series,” short stories about fantastical transformations, and on a novel called Radio Lost and Found.
Amanda blogs about
obscure & beautiful books.
She divides her time between homes in the U.S. and New Zealand. When she’s not writing, she might be found on a dirt path in the mountains or a black-sand beach. Or, she could be in the kitchen baking sourdough bread and apple crisps. Or, she could be studying up on the anatomy of the octopus for her next story.
“I adore ambiguity and have an abiding disdain for boundaries. Consequently, I find myself crossing easily between hopes and possibilities; what is and what could be; reality and imagination”
Official Bios
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Amanda Barusch writes captivating narratives about everyday miracles in the lives of everyday folks.
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For Amanda, it’s about sun-warmed tomatoes sliced thick on fresh sourdough bread, a stranger’s smile on a rainy day, a kitty petting her sleepy check. For some strange reason, she likes to wave at people she doesn’t know and is thrilled when they wave back.
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Amanda Barusch has worked as a janitor, online matchmaker, exotic dancer, editor, and college professor. She lives part-time in the American West, where she spends as much time as possible on dirt paths. The rest of the time, she is in New Zealand, hanging out with her two-year-old grandson. Amanda has published eight books of non-fiction, a few poems, and a growing number of short stories. Aging Angry is her first work of creative non-fiction. In her fiction, she likes to use magical realism to explore deep truths of human experience.
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Amanda Barusch writes fiction and nonfiction about extraordinary events in the lives of regular people. She strives to harness the power of narrative to explore deep truths about human experience. She has published 8 books of nonfiction, a few poems, and a growing number of short stories.
Amanda divides her time between the Western United States and the North Island of New Zealand. She identifies as a Kiwi-American. She received her Ph.D. in social welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, and her MFA at the University of Utah. A distinguished scholar, she holds appointments as Emeritus Professor at the University of Utah and the University of Otago (New Zealand). She is a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America and a member of the New Zealand Society of Authors. While she has officially retired from academia, Amanda continues to supervise students and to teach workshops and courses in various universities and correctional facilities.
Her writing career began at the age of nine, when she won an essay contest. Drawing upon her experiences as the daughter of an alcoholic, Amanda wrote her essay on the horrors of drinking. Her prize was a crisp $20 bill that she used – of course – to buy books. Since then, she has turned her pen to the complexity of family relationships, the miracle of metamorphosis, and the gift of redemption.
Amanda’s blog, Swagger & Ink, introduces her readers to obscure and beautiful books.
Amanda has been a social welfare educator & researcher for over 30 years.
She’s taught both writing and social welfare at major universities and correctional facilities.
University of Otago
New Zealand
Washington University
St. Louis
Orange Street Community Correctional Center
Salt Lake City
University of Utah
Salt Lake City
Bonneville Community Correctional Center
Salt Lake City
University of California
Berkeley
Let Me Introduce Myself
Hi, I'm Amanda Barusch, and this is my two-minute introduction.
I never planned to retire. I was going to be one of those perky old professors who mentor students, publish original research, and teach classes well into my 80s. When I even thought about retirement, I always figured I would do it successfully. In fact, I planned to be so good at it that I could write a book on aging. Well, it's a really popular topic. Things did not go as planned. A new boss came and announced to the world that I was in the twilight of my career. What followed was a couple of very difficult years that led me to conclude that I had no choice but to leave the job I had loved for over 35 years.
As I packed up my books, I realized I was really not aging well; I was aging angry. For the first few years after retirement, I studied anger. I read everything I could get my hands on. I met with experts on topics ranging from anger norms in ancient Rome to the latest techniques for anger management. I collected stories from hundreds of people who, like me, found themselves angry in later life. These older adults shared lessons they had gleaned from some of life's most difficult experiences. They became the basis of my new book, Aging Angry.
I would love to talk with you about anger or aging ... anything really. Please feel free to contact me via my website: amandabarusch.com. Thank you for listening.
On My Bookshelf
Books are my magic carpet, taking me to distant times and lands in conversation with astonishing authors. They allow me to live a thousand lives rather than just one. When I was an academic, my research led me to interview people about their experiences: of love, of age, of gender, of parenting, of anger, of poverty. In these conversations, I was always struck by the paradox: how unique we are and yet how similar--and how important it was to travel for a while in someone else's shoes.
Now, my fiction and poetry turn on the possibilities of redemption and metamorphosis: a woman turns into a tree, a teenager turns into an octopus, a misanthrope learns to love, a poet becomes a soldier, a soldier becomes a poet, an armadillo discovers his mojo. I hope you will join me in this conversation.
Read & Reviewed
Amanda's bookshelf: read
“Each book, from Wind in the Willows to Don Quixote, transports us to a new world of possibilities and permissions. For me, to read widely is to live fully.”
Resources for Readers & Writers
Here, you'll find people and businesses and even gadgets that Amanda just loves. Maybe some of them will come in handy for you?
Notable Appearances
Readings • Interviews • Speeches • Seminars
Media Mentions
Take a look at who’s talking about Amanda!
Speaking Gigs
Amanda is at her best one-on-one and in small groups. She is especially keen to meet with groups interested in talking about aging and older adults. She's also available for writing workshops.
Topics of Expertise
Amanda studied and wrote about older adults for four decades. This work has always fascinated her, and now it’s personally relevant! She loves to share her experiences and insights with audiences of all ages and is happy to meet individually as well. Topics include:
From Rage to Resistance: Activism in Later Life
Free Radicals: Making Peace with Rage
Harnessing Anger for Passion & Romance
Creative Writing for the Rest of Us (a series of workshops)
Understanding Masculine Anger: For the feminine in all of us
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“Love opens the door to our potential and helps shape the people we become.”