Barbara Drake-Vera
@barbaradrakevera.bsky.social
Writer, feminist, glacier-lover, cat-snuggler. Author, MELTED AWAY: A Memoir of Climate Change & Caregiving in Peru (LSU Press, 2024), Florida Book Award winner, finalist, Sarton Women's Book Award in Memoir
My accomplishment this week has been not dying in the heat dome.
August 1, 2025 at 11:38 PM
My accomplishment this week has been not dying in the heat dome.
Grateful to the Key West Literary Seminar for hosting me as their June writer in residence for my novel in progress. What a gift! (View from my KW studio)
July 26, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Grateful to the Key West Literary Seminar for hosting me as their June writer in residence for my novel in progress. What a gift! (View from my KW studio)
My residency workspace at the Key West Literary Seminar. So grateful for this opportunity.
June 10, 2025 at 1:19 AM
My residency workspace at the Key West Literary Seminar. So grateful for this opportunity.
Entrance to my residency cottage in Key West, with the generous support of the Key West Literary Seminar. So grateful for the opportunity.
June 4, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Entrance to my residency cottage in Key West, with the generous support of the Key West Literary Seminar. So grateful for the opportunity.
Connected with lots of smart, welcoming people at Tally's Word of South music/ literary festival today. Got to soak up the wisdom of my fellow NF panelists Ray Arsenault and Evan Bennett, had lunch with members of Parliament-Funkadelic, and got sassy with the Shindellas.
April 5, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Connected with lots of smart, welcoming people at Tally's Word of South music/ literary festival today. Got to soak up the wisdom of my fellow NF panelists Ray Arsenault and Evan Bennett, had lunch with members of Parliament-Funkadelic, and got sassy with the Shindellas.
Honored to accept the silver Florida Book Award for Melted Away tonight.
April 4, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Honored to accept the silver Florida Book Award for Melted Away tonight.
Honored to announce I'll be appearing on a nonfiction panel at the Word of South festival, in Tallahassee, on April 5th, with fellow Florida Book Award winners Ray Arsenault (John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community) and Evan Bennett Tampa Bay: The Story of an Estuary and Its People).
March 4, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Honored to announce I'll be appearing on a nonfiction panel at the Word of South festival, in Tallahassee, on April 5th, with fellow Florida Book Award winners Ray Arsenault (John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community) and Evan Bennett Tampa Bay: The Story of an Estuary and Its People).
February 27 marks the one-year publishing anniversary of MELTED AWAY! Thank you to all the fellow writers, editors, booksellers, friends, festival organizers, and awards judges who made this past year possible. And, of course, my wonderful team at @lsupress!
February 27, 2025 at 2:03 PM
February 27 marks the one-year publishing anniversary of MELTED AWAY! Thank you to all the fellow writers, editors, booksellers, friends, festival organizers, and awards judges who made this past year possible. And, of course, my wonderful team at @lsupress!
First draft of next book done!
February 23, 2025 at 8:31 PM
First draft of next book done!
I'm melting with happiness! My memoir, MELTED AWAY (@lsupress) was awarded a silver medal from the Florida Book Awards, in the general nonfiction category, for 2024.
Thank you, judges for recognizing an eco-memoir that explores the dual griefs of climate change and dementia caregiving.
Thank you, judges for recognizing an eco-memoir that explores the dual griefs of climate change and dementia caregiving.
February 7, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I'm melting with happiness! My memoir, MELTED AWAY (@lsupress) was awarded a silver medal from the Florida Book Awards, in the general nonfiction category, for 2024.
Thank you, judges for recognizing an eco-memoir that explores the dual griefs of climate change and dementia caregiving.
Thank you, judges for recognizing an eco-memoir that explores the dual griefs of climate change and dementia caregiving.
Excited to share that Melted Away has been shortlisted for a Sarton Award in Memoir from Story Circle.
Read the full shortlist here: www.storycircle.org/contest/stor...
@lsupress.bsky.social
Read the full shortlist here: www.storycircle.org/contest/stor...
@lsupress.bsky.social
February 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Excited to share that Melted Away has been shortlisted for a Sarton Award in Memoir from Story Circle.
Read the full shortlist here: www.storycircle.org/contest/stor...
@lsupress.bsky.social
Read the full shortlist here: www.storycircle.org/contest/stor...
@lsupress.bsky.social
Excited to begin research today on my new novel, set in colonial Peru.
January 29, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Excited to begin research today on my new novel, set in colonial Peru.
I love these pen-and-ink owls on the cover of Wild Roof Journal, where my essay "Losing It at a Glacier's Edge" is currently nesting. The artwork is by Brad Robert Benford. Read the essay here: wildroofjournal.com/issue-28-gal...
@aaronlelito.bsky.social
#climatechange
#glaciers
#environment
@aaronlelito.bsky.social
#climatechange
#glaciers
#environment
January 14, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I love these pen-and-ink owls on the cover of Wild Roof Journal, where my essay "Losing It at a Glacier's Edge" is currently nesting. The artwork is by Brad Robert Benford. Read the essay here: wildroofjournal.com/issue-28-gal...
@aaronlelito.bsky.social
#climatechange
#glaciers
#environment
@aaronlelito.bsky.social
#climatechange
#glaciers
#environment
Writers published by scholarly presses be looking at this article like...
December 12, 2024 at 9:36 PM
Writers published by scholarly presses be looking at this article like...
I am thrilled to be featured on this month's AlzAuthors' podcast, talking about Melted Away and caring for my American father in Peru. Thank you so much, Marianne and Christy, for being such generous hosts. Everyone, please take a listen! www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBEl...
December 4, 2024 at 5:01 PM
I am thrilled to be featured on this month's AlzAuthors' podcast, talking about Melted Away and caring for my American father in Peru. Thank you so much, Marianne and Christy, for being such generous hosts. Everyone, please take a listen! www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBEl...
El Fotografo and I on our old stomping grounds, Lincoln Road Mall, Miami Beach
November 26, 2024 at 8:41 PM
El Fotografo and I on our old stomping grounds, Lincoln Road Mall, Miami Beach
Such a joy meeting readers and fellow authors at the 2024 Miami Book Fair this past weekend. A dream come true! I also got to meet climatologist Michael E. Mann, who blurbed my book and has been such an inspiration to me as a communicator. I can't wait to return to the fair with my next book.
November 26, 2024 at 8:40 PM
Such a joy meeting readers and fellow authors at the 2024 Miami Book Fair this past weekend. A dream come true! I also got to meet climatologist Michael E. Mann, who blurbed my book and has been such an inspiration to me as a communicator. I can't wait to return to the fair with my next book.
Am devouring Montreal Noir, a collection published by Akashic Books that I picked up at the Miami Book Fair yesterday. So grimy and so good!
November 24, 2024 at 9:09 PM
Am devouring Montreal Noir, a collection published by Akashic Books that I picked up at the Miami Book Fair yesterday. So grimy and so good!
An honor and delight to hang out witj the fantastic scientist and climate communicator @michaelemann.bsky.social at the Miami Book Fair today.
November 23, 2024 at 6:56 PM
An honor and delight to hang out witj the fantastic scientist and climate communicator @michaelemann.bsky.social at the Miami Book Fair today.
Hello, Miami!
November 23, 2024 at 12:02 AM
Hello, Miami!
Hello, Miami!
November 22, 2024 at 10:04 PM
Hello, Miami!
Blue-eyed alpaca, Ausangate region, southern Peru. Photo by yours truly.
November 19, 2024 at 12:02 AM
Blue-eyed alpaca, Ausangate region, southern Peru. Photo by yours truly.
Me signing copies of my book at our town's amazing new indie bookstore, The Lynx.
November 18, 2024 at 2:33 AM
Me signing copies of my book at our town's amazing new indie bookstore, The Lynx.
Spent the day transcribing interviews with people in the Ausangate area of Peru, whom I interviewed about climate change years ago. Here we are interviewing then 80-yo Jesusa, a llama and alpaca herder whose life was being upended by loss of the glacial streams.
November 16, 2024 at 10:59 PM
Spent the day transcribing interviews with people in the Ausangate area of Peru, whom I interviewed about climate change years ago. Here we are interviewing then 80-yo Jesusa, a llama and alpaca herder whose life was being upended by loss of the glacial streams.