Barbara Lock

Barbara LockBarbara LockBarbara Lock
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  • About and Contact
  • Craft Notes
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    • My Writing
    • About and Contact
    • Craft Notes

Barbara Lock

Barbara LockBarbara LockBarbara Lock
  • My Writing
  • About and Contact
  • Craft Notes

Adventures in Narrative

Adventures in Narrative Adventures in Narrative Adventures in Narrative

Barbara Lock, MD, is a writer, editor, teacher, and emergency physician. 

Read New Work: The Story of Girls (Nominated for Pushcart)

Fiction

Voyager Bay

The Fisherman's Seven Dreams

The Story of Girls

Father threw me off the sailboat, gripped the rudder with his left hand, did something with the rope in his clean, right palm. The boat swung around and went away, leaving me cold, kicking, sinking. 

Read "Voyager Bay" in ROI FAINÉANT

The Story of Girls

The Fisherman's Seven Dreams

The Story of Girls

This is a picture of AI art from Cold Signal for "The Story of Girls," written by Barbara Lock.

In "The Story of Girls," a newly pregnant journalist travels on assignment to interview a witch.

Read The Story of Girls in cold-signal.com

The Fisherman's Seven Dreams

The Fisherman's Seven Dreams

The Fisherman's Seven Dreams

An image of a fish in a net. "The Fisherman's Seven Dreams" appears in Invisible City Issue 5. https

Maiju meets her husband on the shore of their rocky isle to inspect his catch; he has pulled but three fishes and they are flabby, sickly-looking things, dull of eye and crawling with sea lice.

Read The Fisherman's Seven Dreams in Invisible City

The Wager

Cooks and Delivery Men

The Fisherman's Seven Dreams

"I stood on the sidewalk with my arms crossed, scowling at my father as Brook rode up on his one-speed. Brook wanted his money, but we were just about to drive away from Minneapolis forever, and cash was tight."

Read "The Wager" in Westchester Review

Cooks and Delivery Men

Cooks and Delivery Men

Cooks and Delivery Men

An image of the cover of Superstition Review, Issue 28. A faceless man of color holds a faceless chi

Paramedics find the body of a Cook in a single room also occupied by a Waiter, a Delivery Man, and a father. The paramedics push on the Cook’s heart, but the brain does not restart. 

Read Superstition Review 28

The Cyanotype

Cooks and Delivery Men

Cooks and Delivery Men

Michael gazed at indiscriminate litter in the wide sideyard: motorcycles, shards of plywood, children’s red toys faded beige. Such a shame letting old motorcycles go to scrap, he thought. 

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The Siren

The Cost of Tuna

The Cost of Tuna

“I just think it might be a way to solve the problem of your failing body, you know?” Brandon says.


“Correction,” Celia says. “That solves the problem of whose body you are going to use when mine fails. There’s a difference.” 


(pic: @aykutmaykut)

Read Yalobusha Review: 33

The Cost of Tuna

The Cost of Tuna

The Cost of Tuna

 Olga’s arms would flow over the body, folding, tucking, making ready for the first grave; removing catheters, intravenous lines, making the flesh look respectable for the pathologist, medical examiner, undertaker. The mask’s strap was fatigued, is all, having been baked in the oven next to fish. It shouldn’t have surprised her.(📷 @peraltaprjct)

Read New Delta Review 11.1

The Lists

The Cost of Tuna

The Toxicant

This surreal piece of medical fiction, which earned honorable mention in the Saturday  Evening Post's Great American Fiction Contest 2020, was Barbara Lock's first published fiction. 

Purchase Best Short Stories from the Saturday Evening Post's Great American Fiction Contest 2020

The Toxicant

The Toxicant

The Toxicant

"It's like he has a mouthful of roaches that are clamoring to crawl out and he has to press his lips together to keep them inside," says my friend.


"Can you be more explicit?" I ask my friend. "I'm tired of having to guess what you mean all the time."

(starts on page 68) 

Read Fiction International: Algorithm

Short Prose Forms and Poetry

Three Poems

On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.

On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.

Three Poems by Barbara Lock appear in The Disappointed Housewife.

Read "Against Beginnings," "In Which I Imagine a Softening," and "The Terrible Dreaming," in The  Disappointed Housewife.

Read poems at The Disappointed Housewife!

On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.

On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.

On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.

Read this poem at jmww.

Read "On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder" at jmww.

Domesticated Man

On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.

Only Young Women Were Adjudged

Read this poem at nurture.com

Read "Domesitcated Man" in nurture literary.com

Only Young Women Were Adjudged

Evidence in Favor of My Capacity

Only Young Women Were Adjudged

Only Young Women Were Adjudged was published on juked.com  on 3.31.22

Evidence in Favor of My Capacity

Evidence in Favor of My Capacity

Evidence in Favor of My Capacity

Evidence In Support of My Capacity was published by X-R-A-Y Lit on February 21, 2022.

Sometimes I jump from one time and place to another with insufficient preparation. Indeed, this is the rule. The key to enjoying yourself in this situation is to avoid judgment. I can’t be all things to all people, I tell myself. There is a sadness that never goes away.

See what's new at X-R-A-Y Lit!

Seven Oscillations

Evidence in Favor of My Capacity

Evidence in Favor of My Capacity

perpheries number 4, a journal of word and image, released on October 7, 2021

Seven short prose pieces reminiscent of parables in both form and tone.The pieces begin on page 163. Peripheries is published annually by Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions 

Somebody is Disenfranchised

Somebody is Disenfranchised

Somebody is Disenfranchised

The micro Somebody is Disenfranchised appears near the bottom of Versification's June 2021 Contest issue, along with an audio recording. 

Moving Day

Somebody is Disenfranchised

Somebody is Disenfranchised

Moving Day is featured in Cobra Milk, issue 2. 

Creative Nonfiction and Interviews

Insect Music

How to Subvert the Illness Narrative

God in Spanish

"Insect Music," which concerns itself with COVID, fear, compassion, and love, gives the reader a front row seat to pandemic history. Many thanks to The Forge for nominating this essay for the Pushcart.


""What is fear, and how does it relate to knowledge? Was I afraid because of what I knew, or what I didn’t know?" 

Pushcart Nominated

God in Spanish

How to Subvert the Illness Narrative

God in Spanish

Heart of Flesh literary journal is not tame or timid, and neither is Barbara Lock's nonfiction.

This CNF, which contains a literal body count, is not for the faint of heart. 

Purchase a copy of issue 6

How to Subvert the Illness Narrative

How to Subvert the Illness Narrative

How to Subvert the Illness Narrative

A craft interview with David Ryan / April, 2021

Social

Copyright © 2023 Barbara Lock, writer and physician - All Rights Reserved.


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