Gregory A. Barnes publishes in two main areas. He
writes fiction set in Africa, based on his
experiences with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone
and Nigeria. His two novels are A Wind of Change
(1968)and Jane Among Friends (2017); he has also
published a collection of short fiction from those
days, titled “The Beauty Queen of Bonthe and other
Stories of West Africa” ( 2018). In recent years
he has self-published under the imprimatur
FriendsPress.
His other topic is Quaker history, based on his
extensive research and his participation in
activities of the Religious Society of Friends. He
has published 3 large studies: A Biography of
Lillian and George Willoughby, 20th Century Quaker
Peace Activists (2005); Philadelphia’s Arch Street
Meeting House: a Biography (2012); and A
Centennial History of the American Friends Service
Committee (2016).
He has been a member of Central Philadelphia
Monthly Meeting since the early 1990s. He lives
with his wife in an experimental Quaker community
in Philadelphia, and continues his active writing
program: another Quaker history is due out in
2019.
