Linda-Marie

Linda-Marie Barrett was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Colgate University, majoring in Russian Studies, and then obtained a Masters in Russian Literature and Slavic Linguistics from Cornell University. Although she had aspirations to be a foreign correspondent or work for the government, she impulsively cast those dreams aside and moved to North Carolina where she got married, bought a farm, and began work as a bookseller at the award-winning Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe.

The farm was quite remote, surrounded by mountains and bordered by a rushing creek whose watery music sounded throughout the house when the windows were up.  With the assistance of how-to manuals and occasional help from neighbors, Linda-Marie learned to garden, brew beer, spin wool, craft herbal tinctures, split kindling with an ax, and cook on a wood cookstove. Some of her fondest memories involve assisting in the birthing of lambs, coaxing them out from their mothers, rubbing down their soaked wooly skin with towels. then soothing them in her arms. Her homesteading experience and the farm setting inspired her when she wrote a YA fantasy series set in Ireland that blends historical fiction, urban fantasy, and the erotic world of faerie. She continues to develop the series and hopes someday to find the perfect publisher for it.

In 2011, she and her then-husband Brian Lee Knopp invited 10 local authors to join them in writing the serialized novel, Naked Came the Leaf Peeper, a zany Southern Appalachian take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The novel was an immediate success and became a regional bestseller. Ron Rash, author of Serena, praises, "Naked Came the Leaf Peeper is a delight, laugh-out-loud funny and appealingly irreverent. North Carolina literature will never, ever be the same.”

She’s now married to the wonderful Jon Mayes, who recently retired after spending a lifetime in the book business. She is the Executive Director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), a trade association which represents over 500 bookstores in the South. Throughout her life, books have shaped who she is, how she moves in the world, and who she hopes to be. Writing, reading, and recommending books to others, particularly books that might change lives, are sacred acts.