In Barbara's Words

Barbara Scheiber, award-winning author of the highly-praised novel-in-stories, We'll Go To Coney Island, began writing fiction at the age of 65, after a career as a journalist, radio script writer and producer, and disability rights advocate. Her book on educational opportunities for adults with learning disabilities, Unlocking Potential, won a national book award. Her short stories have been published in literary journals including Antietam Review, Whetstone, and Fine Print, and have appeared in anthologies of Washington, DC writers. Two stories also received the Whetstone Fiction award and were nominated for Pushcart prizes. In 1999, she received an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland Arts Council for a novella, The Queen of Sheba. Fulfilling Dreams, the comprehensive guidebook she wrote for parents of children with Williams syndrome, was published in 2002. A native of New York City, she and her husband, Walter Scheiber, a national leader in regional governance, raised their four children in suburban Maryland, where she lived until her death in March 2021, at age 99.