About
Ellen Barker grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, during a period of demographic upheaval, then moved to Saint Louis for undergraduate and graduate school at Washington University. Her studies there fomented a passion for how cities work, and don’t. She began her career in Saint Louis as an urban planner. After a brief stint as managing of an economics journal at Stanford, she spent many years working for large consulting firms on both coasts, first as a writer-editor and later managing large data systems. She returns to the Midwest in her novels.
Learn more about Ellen and her books at www.ellebarkerauthor.com
Featured Work
Nothing North of Delmar
It's 1976, the Bicentennial year and a watershed moment in America. The draft, the Vietnam war, Woodstock, and the Summer of Love are long gone. Tie-die is out, and everyone has cut their hair. The Civil Rights Act has passed, the Equal Rights Amendment is just a few states from ratification, Roe v. Wade is firmly enshrined, and closet doors are creaking open. The sixties had changed the world.
Only they hadn’t, as Novelle is about to find out.
At this moment, she arrives in St. Louis to start graduate school in economics, a clear-cut field of mathematic problem sets with answers. Except . . . it’s not. Almost immediately, she discovers that Delmar Boulevard is a Great Wall of China separating Black North from white South St. Louis and that economics is a driving force in sustaining the divide. She gets caught up in unraveling a plan to “take back” a Black neighborhood that has leaked over the divide. By the time she finishes her degree, she is getting hate mail and death threats. But she’s also come into her own as a force for change. A satirical, witty look at a slice of history that still resonates.
