Suellen Barnes

I write at the intersection of fact and fiction — and at the edge of a cut flower farm in rural Maryland, about an hour from Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

A self-described military brat, I grew up moving across the United States — Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, Virginia, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Washington, D.C. — before settling in Maryland, where my husband Jim and I have spent the past thirty years. Those years of moving gave me a deep curiosity about people, places, and the way the world works, a curiosity that still drives everything I write.

I am the author of Just Around the Corner, a picture book for young readers about a small kitten named Gizmo who discovers that one brave step can change everything — inspired by my own housecats and Australian Shepherd, Montana. I am also the author of Curious About Homeschooling, a practical guide for families considering education outside the traditional classroom.

My essays explore the questions that don't have easy answers — among them, what it means to live alongside generative AI, who gets a seat at the table when powerful new technologies arrive, and how ordinary people can navigate a world changing faster than anyone expected.

When I am not writing, I am in the garden. Jim and I run Barnesdale Farm, a small cut flower operation where we grow dahlias, zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, and more, selling bouquets at our farm market and at Black Ankle Vineyards. The farm also has four barn cats, two housecats named Gizmo and Moonshine, and an Australian Shepherd named Montana.

I speak French, a little Spanish, and the language of anyone willing to talk about soccer, quantum physics, or what the dahlias are doing this week.