Barbara J. Taylor

Barbara J. Taylor lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania, home of the second-largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country. She has an MFA in creative writing from Wilkes University and teaches English in the Pocono Mountain School District.

She is the author of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night and All Waiting Is Long.

Recently I asked Taylor about what she was reading. Her reply:

I just finished reading Adam Cohen’s Imbeciles about the American eugenics movement and found it fascinating. While researching my novel, All Waiting Is Long, I kept coming across medical books written by the American Eugenics Society in the 20s and 30s. Since my novel opens at the Good Shepherd Infant Asylum, a catholic home for unwed pregnant girls, I delved into eugenics as it pertained to women deemed morally unfit. In reading Cohen’s book, I realized just how broad and insidious the American eugenics movement was, and to a certain extent, still is, in our country. As recently as the early 2000s, women in prisons were offered shortened sentences if they agreed to be sterilized. At a time when men are still trying to legislate women’s bodies, Imbeciles is a must read.

Learn more about All Waiting Is Long, and visit Barbara J. Taylor's website.

My Book, The Movie: Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night.

--Marshal Zeringue