Ruth Anderson-Barnett

Ruth Anderson received her Bachelor’s Degree in English in 1964 from California Western University and later completed graduate studies in Literature at San Diego State College, earning her Master’s Degree in English in 1968.

Two years later, in 1970, during a period of departmental expansion for Grossmont College, Ruth Anderson and four other new instructors were invited by then Chair C. Frank Vittor, Jr. to join the staff of the English Department. By 1975, Ruth Anderson had begun taking an active role in the fray of the faculty’s disputes with the Grossmont College trustees over the issue of collective bargaining. As Vice-President of the Grossmont College Teachers’ Association, Anderson played a crucial role in a protest movement that eventually lead to a change of Governing Board leadership. Although the catalogs of record do not acknowledge it, in the midst of turbulence, between 1977 and 1978, Anderson stepped into the role of English Department Chair to become its advocate and its voice during this critical time.

In addition to Ruth's role in the CTA and her service as Department Chair, she was an instrumental part of the Department’s developing Creative Writing Program, and taught the four-course sequence of Poetry Workshops for many years. Her interests in poetry extended beyond her campus teaching duties: in 1984, local El Cajon press Comet Halley published her first collection of poetry, Dangerous Intersections. Over the next several years, she also enrolled in a distance education program for writers at Warren Wilson College (North Carolina). In December, 1992, Ruth officially submitted as her thesis a manuscript of collected poems, North of Victorville: Voice In the Act of Discovery, and by the next spring she obtained her Master’s of Fine Arts in poetry writing.

In fact, the 1990's were a productive and creative period for Ruth. She published poems in a variety of poetry quarterlies and anthologies, including prestigious journals such as Beloit Poetry Journal, Southern Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, and Virginia Quarterly. In 1994, she won the Sow’s Ear Poetry Competition for her poem, “Beach Glass.” In 1996, Marlboro Review published her work in their inaugural issue, and by the following year Ruth was invited to serve as editor of the journal. She was also amassing a new manuscript of poetry, and, in 1999, Fourway Books published, Stripper In the Mojave. Three years later, former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky’s judged her poem “Firestorm” as Grand Prize winner of the St. Louis Poetry Center’s “Best Poem” Contest.

Ruth Anderson-Barnett and husband Bruce Barnett, Grossmont College Economics professor, retired together from the District in 1999.
 

• Dangerous Intersections. El Cajon, CA: Comet Halley Press, 1984.
• John Donne and Petrarchism: the Tradition and the Major Poems. San Diego State College. M.A. Thesis, 1968. 
• North of Victorville: A Collection of Poems (a.k.a. Voice In the Act of Discovery). Dissertation (December 16, 1992). Swannanoa, NC: Warren Wilson College, 1992.
• Stripper In the Mojave. New York: Four Way Books, 1999.

• Ruth Anderson-Barnett's poems appear in Nimrod, Quarterly West, Faultline 11 (2002), Southern Indiana Review, and the following journals:
• “The Anorexic.” Beloit Poetry Journal 42.2 (Winter 1991-1992): 14.
• “The Anorexic.” Outsiders: Poems about Rebels, Exiles, and Renegades. Ed., Laure-Anne Bosselaar. 1999. 20-22.
• “Annie Parker.” Beloit Poetry Journal 42.2 (Winter 1991-1992): 17.
• “Annie Parker.” A Fine Excess: Special 50th Anniversary Anthology (Beloit Poetry Journal) 42.2 (Fall/Winter 2000-2001): 261.
• “Baja Campground, August 1955 (For Linda).” Marlboro Review 1 (1996).
• “Class Reunion.” Beloit Poetry Journal 44.1 (Fall 1993): 41.
• “Cows.” Salamander: A Magazine for Poetry, Fiction, and Memoirs 4.1 (1996).
• “Dancer At Kozani’s.” Night Out: Poems about Hotels, Motels, Restaurants, and Bars. Ed. Kurt Brown. Milkweed Editions, 1997.
• “Dinosaur Love.” Cowles Mountain Journal 7 (1996): 5.
• “Dixie Remembers the Runaway.” New Letters Magazine 60.2 (Winter 1994): 122-124.
• "Dog and Cat." Poetry Explorer 2014. www.poetryexplorer.net. On-line.
• “Dog and Cat” +2. Prairie Schooner 74.2 (Summer 2000).
• “Drive-In Movie.” Poem. The Virginia Quarterly Review Spring 1998: np. 
• “Firestorm.” Pleiades Magazine: A Journal of New Writing 22.1 (Spring 2002).
• “Meerkat.” Cowles Mountain Journal 7 (1996): 15.
• “Phaedra in Hades.” Green Mountains Review 6-7 (1993): 90. 
• “Phaedra in Hades.” Orpheus & Company: Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology. Ed., Deborah DeNicola. University Press of New England, 1999. 283-284.
• Poems. Southern Poetry Review 34.2 (Winter 1994). 
• Poems. Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women 18.2 (Winter 1998-99)."Scraps."  Cowles Mountain Journal 5 (Spring 1992): 19.
• “Provo Canyon, 1951.” Alaska Quarterly Review 21.1-2 (Fall/Winter 2003): 194.
• "Standard Time."  Cowles Mountain Journal 5 (Spring 1992): 37.
• “Starlings.” Laurel Review 37.2 (Summer 2003).
• “Taxidermist At the Zoo” and “The Anorexic.” The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies. Ed., Tessa Kale. Columbia University Press, 2002. 

• Anderson-Barnett, Ruth, Ann Turkle, Julene Bair, Todd Pierce, and Rex West, “Life In the Trenches: Perspectives From Five Writing Programs.” Interview. Colors of a Different Horse: Rethinking Creative Writing Theory and Pedagogy. Eds., Wendy Bishop and Hans Ostrom. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1994. 35-53.

• The Marlboro Review 3: A Tribute To Larry Levis (Winter/Spring 1997).
• The Marlboro Review 9 (Winter/Spring 2000).
• Pavement Saw Press Chapbook Contest 1999.
• Pavement Saw 4 (January 2000).

• Academy of American Poets "James Laughlin Award", 1999, The Stripper In the Mojave.
• Prairie Schooner Readers' Choice Awards for three poems in the Summer 2000 issue of Prairie Schooner.
• Sow’s Ear Poetry Competition, 1994, “Beach Glass.”
• St. Louis Poetry Center’s Poetry Contest, 2002, “Firestorm” (Grand Prize).

• "Anderson, Ruth." The Gallery, 1974: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College District, 1974. p4.
• "Anderson, Ruth A." The Gallery: A 25th Anniversary Photographic Directory of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Faculty, Administration, and Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, 1987. p10.
• "Anderson-Barnett, Ruth." The Gallery: A 35th Anniversary Photographic Directory of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Faculty, Administration, and Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, 1996. p15.
• "Barnett House Tour Benefits Town Hall." Ramona Sentinel 27 September 2012: p5.
• El Portal Yearbook. San Diego, CA: Point Loma High School, 1957, 1958.
• Ehrke, Wiley G. "Teachers Choking in District Barbecu." The G (Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA)11 October 1978: p1.
• Finley, Lois. "College Upper Echelons Give Personal Views to The G." The G (Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA) 7—14 March 1979: p9.
• Grossmont College Institutional Archives. Learning Resource Center. Grossmont College, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. 
• Private Photo Collection. Copyright, Homer B. Lusk, Grossmont College Professor Emeritus and former English Department Chair.
• Loma Del Mar Yearbook. San Diego, CA: California Western University, 1963-1964. 
• Peterson, Eric. E. “Education In a Tape Noose.” The G (Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA) 23 November 1988: p1-2.Scanlan, Tom. "Twenty-One to Join Ranks of Retirees." GCCCD Grapevine 9.2 (June 1999): p1.
• Steinbach, Bob. "Ruth Anderson Barnett." Driftwood. GCCCD Grapevine 12.1 (March 2002): p10.

• Jack Barranger 1970-1979
• Dorothy Ledbetter 1970-1994
• Ruth Anderson 1970-1999 (Chair (1977-1978)
• Peter Bradley 1970-1999
• John Barnier 1970-2003 (Assistant Chair 1972-1974)