Kristin Barendsen

Kristin is passionate about helping people delve into their deepest stories—and find the most authentic expressions of them. What truths are spoken only by the body? What’s the story underneath the story? She guides her clients to define the arc of meaning in their lives and explore how their core message resonates on a universal level. She helps writers navigate their internal blocks, create a sustainable writing practice, and get their voices out into the world.

 

Queer and genderbending (and a double Scorpio besides), Kristin writes into borderland spaces in her own work. She’s interested in speaking aloud about taboos and exploring hybrid, innovative forms. Empathy with animals is a central theme she explores, along with issues of women’s sexuality, identity, and power. 

 

Her work has appeared in The Sun, American Poets, Atticus Review, and other literary magazines. She was a finalist in Fourth Genre’s Steinberg Essay Contest and winner of the Academy of American Poets College Prize. She co-authored Photography: New Mexico, which won a Southwest Writers Award, and she collaborated with the Buddhist teacher Roshi Joan Halifax on her book Standing at the Edge. She has served as a contributing editor for both Yoga Journal and Yoga International magazines. Before all that, she studied creative writing at Stanford with Grace Paley and Denise Levertov.

 

Today, in addition to her work with Somatic Writing, she developmentally edits and copyedits memoirs and nonfiction manuscripts. An artivist, she merges art with social justice by producing spoken word events and visual art exhibitions.