HOTEL SETTLES, BIG SPRING, TEXAS
Barbara Brannon
Author | Editor | Designer
Phone
806.252.6554
Address
P. O. Box 515
Spur, TX 79370-0515
A bit about me
Barbara Brannon studied poetry with James Dickey at the University of South Carolina, where she earned the MA and PhD. Her poems have appeared in the Asheville Poetry Review, Broad River Review, Cenacle, Kakalak, Light, Measure, the South Carolina Review, and Yemassee, among other outlets, including the Dos Gatos Press anthologies Bearing the Mask: Southwest Persona Poems (2016) and Weaving the Terrain: 100-Word Southwestern Poems (2017). Her sonnets have been named among the top winners of the annual Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest. She is coauthor, with Kay Ellington, of the Paragraph Ranch series of Texas novels (2015–present); writing as Will Brandon, she is author of The Wolf Hunt: A Tale of the Texas Badlands (2021) and A Study in Crimson: Or, The Tale of the Red Man (2023).
Work experience
2018–present
2012–2019
2015–2018
2007–2012
Editor/Co-Owner, The Texas Spur Spur, Texas
Co-owner and business manager of community media firm, and editor of award-winning weekly newspaper published since 1909.
Executive director, Texas Plains Trail Region
As director of a state-supported 501(c)(3) nonprofit initiative of the Texas Historical Commission, researched, planned, promoted, and implemented strategies to support economic development and historic preservation, via heritage tourism, in a 52-county region of the Texas Panhandle and Plains (largest of the state’s 10 such regions). Coordinated efforts of 20-member volunteer board; conducted training and presentations regionwide; participated in state- and local-level legislative advocacy for preservation; produced publications including books, magazines, and online content; solicited and maintained community partnerships; carried out ongoing marketing efforts on behalf of organization and partners; shared heritage news and events via traditional and social media; supervised interns in related projects; handled administrative, budget, and fiscal affairs of organization.
Founding editor, Lone Star Literary Life / Bookadelphia
Producer, content editor, and facilitator for Texas’s first comprehensive weekly resource for book news, reviews, and interviews; serve as editor and publisher for current book titles in literature, creative nonfiction, and history.
Marketing manager, Texas Tech University Press Lubbock, Texas
Responsible for planning, sales, marketing, promotion, and publicity for 25 to 30 new books per year and backlist of some 400 titles. Maintained or increased sales and visibility even in period of industry downturn and university budget and personnel cuts. Worked closely with director, department heads, staff, and field sales reps; worked with authors to promote their titles. Created e-commerce website and e-newsletter to increase sales revenue; was instrumental in introducing digital products and updating life-of-title strategies; managed transition to outsourced warehouse and fulfillment; created systems for improved metadata and workflow. Recruited graduate interns and undergraduate assistants and supervised their work, as well as that of exhibitions & publicity manager. Represented Press at academic meetings and through occasional invited lectures. Helped organize and manage annual Literary Lubbock event.
Awarded AAUP Whiting Week-in-Residence grant, 2010; focused on interdepartmental workflow management and efficiencies within the University of South Carolina Press.
2002–2007
Director, The Publishing Laboratory; lecturer in creative writing
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Established innovative program to teach writing students about book publishing through hands-on experience, including management of a regional book imprint and digital printer and bindery. Developed MFA and BFA curriculum in publishing and taught full load of courses in writing, editing, and publishing. Secured grant for equipping laboratory with state-of-the art computers and software; designed suite of classrooms and lab for new creative writing building. Served on Chancellor’s Web Development Committee to assess and craft campuswide image.