About

Barbara Helvey Hughes

Barbara received a B.A. from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1975 with majors in Sociology and Political Science and a minor in International Law. She tutored returning Viet Nam vets and was the singular undergrad to be appointed Teaching Assistant for their Sociology classes; she was one of only a few undergrads invited to attend the Indiana University’s Writer’s Conference, when she was but nineteen, in recognition of her creative writing talents by its organizer, Dr. Robert W. Mitchner.

Forgoing law school, she began a career in college publishing with McGraw-Hill, in August 1975, and worked with three other companies in the industry and, later, consulted with Ed Yordan, a pioneer in computer languages such as FORTRAN and COBOL, where she helped his company enter the college sales market. 

She raised a compassionate, wonderful human and was married to an amazing artist, Jack R. Hughes, for thirty-three years and until his 2015 death.  She’s run three corporations, which she and her husband started. She rises early to write.  And, breathe.

In 2000, one of her children’s movie scripts, out of nearly 6,000, reached the finals in the Academy Awards competition, the Nicholl Fellowship. There were only 114.  She was thrilled her name was on the Academy site for many years and deflated when they finally got around to removing the long-outdated list. Long time ago, but still worth a brief mention. She writes poetry, essays, scripts.

She’s traveled extensively, and briefly, in England, France, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal, Ghana, Jamaica, and throughout the continental US.  Many of the places she experienced have made their way into her writing.   

She’s lived in Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Maryland, and Florida. She understands why so many of the places she’s visited felt like, and probably were, ‘home’ in other lives.

She’s learned that forks appear in the road and decisions must be made at those junctures. She never took the ‘safe’ ones: they were all gauntlets, but she’s finally taking the one with all the weeds and dips and muddy potholes and she couldn’t be happier. At this age, who woulda thunk?!

She spends summers in her very own Walden, nestled in the mist of The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, with her Soul-Mate Peter McKinnon.

Barbara has owned and operated Hughes Gallery, Inc. in the village of Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island for twenty years.

She is grateful for her life.

Extremely so…thank you.