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Barbara Joan Tiger Bass’s poetry spans a lifetime of language, music and story. Her memoir work encompasses both the lyric and linear, confession and reflection of a well-traveled path. She has written plays, choreographed work for live and zoom audiences, and delved into the art of paper-making after years of watercolor, pastel, and collage.

Barbara Joan received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1982, with concentrations in Early Childhood Development, French and Pre-Med.  She received her MFA from Mills College in 2003 where she focused on Poetry and Memoir.  Her poetry has appeared in various print and on-line journals including Poets Reading the News, and California Quarterly and Bat Dreams. Her poetry addresses family dynamics, the evolution and transformation of place (home, garden and the imagined spaces of memory), as well as reflecting on artistic processes. She continues to correspond by letter with a handful of friends around the globe, despite the lost art aspects of epistolary writing. 

A private writing teacher, coach, and editor for over 25 years, Barbara Joan works with students ranging from 7 to 70 years old.  She encourages self-expression and organization of ideas as entrees into one’s written work. Whether a child’s poem about butterflies, or an article from a Ph.D. thesis on Human-Wildlife dynamics in the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, the importance of sound, structure, voice and vision are emphasized.  

With a lifelong love of dance, she recently choreographed and performed in a zoom showcase through MilkBar and Danspace after a 40 year hiatus.  Her artwork, particularly collage, but also drawing and painting, have also always been part of her artistic expression. 

When not creating, Barbara Joan is often engaged in long phone calls with family and friends, world travel, hearing live music, or attending the theater.  She is politically active, and spends far too much time on social media staying connected with friends from across her life!