portrait of b. adams

Barbara Adams

Associate Professor, Writing
School: School of Humanities and Sciences
Phone: 607-274-3045
Office: Smiddy Hall 427, Ithaca, NY 14850
Specialty: Feature Journalism

                Founder and Director, Internship Program in Writing & Publishing

 "Has anybody ever seen a dramatic critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good."                                                                                                                   – P.G. Wodehouse

AREAS

  • feature writing for magazines & newspapers
  • editing & publishing 
  • arts criticism
  • careers in writing
  • food & travel writing
  • public essay & nonfiction
  • media and technology
  • peer tutoring

DEGREES & HONORS

  • M.A. English, Yale University, 1966. Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Yale and Ford Foundation grants
  • B.A. English, University of Southern California, 1964, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. Cal State and USC scholarships
  • At Ithaca College: Dana Fellowship for Teaching Excellence (1984), Faculty Excellence Award (2018), College Marshall

SOME PUBLICATIONS

  • Theatre critic and feature writer, Ithaca Times (1978-present) and Ithaca Journal (1972-77, 1998-2016) 
  • Interview-based features for ICView on writer Eleanor Henderson (2022) , journalist Jeff Selingo (2021), on playwright/actor Kate Hamill (2018), actor Matt Cavanaugh and actor Mark Price (both 2009), choreographer Vergiu Cornea, screenwriter Paul Bernbaum,  actor/playwright Eric Jordan Young (all 2007), and director/playwright Joe Calarco (1998).
  • Interview-based features for the Ithaca Journal on film critic A. O. Scott (2009), choreographer David Gordon (2006), Iranian writer Azar Nafisi (2006), novelist Tim O'Brien (2005), and choreographer Bill T. Jones.
  • Interview-based features for the Ithaca Times on writer Ted Conover (2019), actor and activist Yolanda King (2004), writer Barbara Ehrenreich (2000), playwright Tony Kushner (1999), choreographer Trisha Brown (1999), lighting designer Jennifer Tipton (1998), choreographer Mark Morris (1998), theatre artist Robert Wilson (1995), playwright Wendy Wasserstein (1995), writer Paul West and others. 
  • Interview-based features for the Ithaca Times with novelist Jack Wang (2021), 
  • Interview with novelist Sorayya Khan, in From the Finger Lakes: A Prose Anthology (2015)
  • Feature on New Hope Mills, Life in the Finger Lakes (2019)
  • Book reviews: Mary Trump, Too Much and Never Enough (2020); Lamar Herrin, Fishing the Jumps (2019), Lamar Herrin, Father Figure (2017), Edward Hower, What You Can Do (2014)
  • Introduction to short story by Reza Daneshvar, "Don't Go to the Reception with Friends of the Groom!" Ithaca: Vista Periodista Press (2006)
  • Review/essay on theatre critic Frank Rich's autobiography, Ghost Light. The Bookpress (Jan 2001)
  • "Tight Focus in Small Places," interview with writer Diane Ackerman, Writer's Digest (Sept 1997)
  • ''A Stylist's Delight: A Conversation with Paul West,'' in Creative Nonfiction 6 (Summer 1996)
  • "Susan Griffin." Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States. Greenwood Press (1993)

OTHER ACTIVITIES

  • Co-Founding Member (since 2000) and former Chair, Ithaca City of Asylum
  • Executive Board Member, Ithaca Voice, 2020-present
  • Director and Founder, Internship Program in Writing & Publishing, Ithaca College, 2001-present
  • Coordinator and Founder, Careers for Writers lecture/discussion series, Ithaca College, fall 2006-present
  • Technology Coordinator and Supervisor of Writing and Technology Consultants, developing Writing's technology initiative, Ithaca College, 1986-2008
  • Writing Minor Coordinator, Ithaca College, 1976-2007
  • Co-Director and Co-Founder, Writing Center, Ithaca College, 1976-1981