Barbara Bennett lives in Owensboro, Kentucky. She has waited tables on the south side of Chicago, worked a teller line in Los Angeles, typed construction specs in Joliet, Illinois, recruited foster parents in Milwaukee, directed a women's center in Salt Lake City, and taught pipeliners in Louisiana how to answer reporters' questions. She holds a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has taught there and at Middle Tennessee State University. For more than 15 years she has co-produced a monthly coffeehouse at which writers read their work.