HOME BARBARA KENT LAWRENCE, Ed.D.
WELCOME and thank you for visiting my site. I hope you will be interested in my first novel and seventh book, Islands of Time, which was re-published in late May 2016 by Maine Authors Publishing, and the sequel The Other Island: Ben's Story, published in the spring of 2017. You'll find links to more information to the right under the small covers.
On this site you will also find my writing about education and eating disorders, and a link to my rental cottages on Hodgdon Pond Farm, Seal Cove, Maine on Mount Desert Island, which is the home of Acadia National Park.
I know this is an odd combination! I've enjoyed diverse opportunities including teaching in universities for 11 years, running a real estate and construction company in Maine, and I was married for a long time to a man who was eating disordered. I've also worked for the Rural School and Community Trust and KnowledgeWorks foundations as a policy analyst and led research teams looking at the cost-effectiveness of small schools.
My first book, Bitter Ice: a memoir of love, food, and obsession was published by Wm. Morrow/Rob Weisbach Books. ERIC/CRESS published my second book, The Hermit Crab Solution about small schools. The Rural School and Community Trust and KnowledgeWorks Foundation published Dollars & Sense: the cost-effectiveness of small schools, and Dollars & Sense 2: Lessons from good, cost-effective small schools, two in-depth reports about small schools. My academic writing has appeared in journals including KAPPAN, Journal for Maine Education, Boston University School of Education's Journal of Education, and the Journal for the Education of the Gifted.
In November 2010 Greene Bark Press published The Hungry i: a Work Book for partners of men with eating disorders. For several years I've been working on a project about my British Family during World War II, titled, for now, Both Sides of the Pond: My Family's War.
I hope what I've learned can be as useful to you as writing about it has been to me.
My best to you,
Barbara
FOR BOOK CLUBS:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ABOUT ISLANDS OF TIME
Comment from a book club reader-
"My book club met last week and so loved discussing your book. It generated so many connections of our home town and the 'outsiders.' We even got into sharing first loves. Most books don't allow us to delve into our own personal lives, but yours conjured up all kinds of memories. I just hope the book clubs around the country enjoy discussing your book as much as we did.
Lynn B., Pennsylvania
PLEASE CONTACT ME AT:
I'd love to send you a signed bookmark and learn what you think about Islands of Time. You can also buy a signed copy of any of my books.
Join me on Facebook at:
www.facebook.com/barbarakentlawrence
Hodgdon Pond Farm, Seal Cove, Maine. Acadia National Park.
Current work: Both Sides of the Pond: My Family's War, 1936-1946.
Please click on photo to see trailer for Islands of Time: 2 minutes
In Islands of Time, Becky Granger, daughter of a prominent New York family visiting Maine for the summer, told her story about falling in love with Ben Bunker, islander from a family of Maine fishermen. Now, in the sequel, Ben tells his own side of the story. Ben’s account deepens our understanding of the characters and events in Islands of Time, but stands as a compelling story on its own. Ben, now a fisherman and a marine biologist, also shares his experience and perspective on the changing fisheries of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, and the ways in which the changes affect his family and community, and well as all of us who share this planet and its oceans.
Praise for The Other Island: Ben's Story
“Fish, love, and Maine! What's not to like? Lawrence blends them beautifully to create a portrait of all three that combines science and art into a great read!”
Linda Greenlaw, best-selling author: The Hungry Ocean, The Lobster Chronicles, and her most recent book, Shiver Hitch.
...a bewitching story about loves that endures the ravages of time and the changing tides.
-- Aislinn Sarnacki, Bangor Daily News
...a moving and beautifully written novel of Maine coastal fishing communities.
--Paul Doiron, bestselling author of The Bone Orchard, The Precipice, and Knife Creek
...an incredibly compelling story.
--Natalie Springuel, Maine Sea Grant
...the subtleties of the intersection of different coastal cultures...woven into a lovely love story, backed up by the fishing history of the time.
--Robin Alden, Executive Director, Penobscot East resource Center, and co-foounder of the Maine Fishermen's Forum
Praise for Islands of Time
Islands of Time: I really like it. The story about a girl from away falling in love with
a year-round kid from Maine, then coming back as an adult to reclaim her self,
resonates with me. It’s also a love song to the people and landscape of Maine.
—Linda Greenlaw, New York Times best-selling author and swordfishing
captain.
WORKING MEMORY:
The Influence of Culture on Aspirations, a Case Study of Four Communities in Maine
by Barbara Kent Lawrence
Ed.D. Dissertation
Boston University, 1998
