Children’s and nonfiction author, librarian, presenter and film locations assistant Lili DeBarbieri’s best-selling and awarded travel guidebooks have chronicled the historical and contemporary film, visual arts and agricultural communities of the Grand Canyon State and the American Southwest.
Her debut picture book “Sand Dune Daisy: A Pocket Mouse Tale” was named a Southwest Book of the Year and recommended by the National Science Teachers Association. Her writing has also been honored with an Arizona Governor’s Arts Award nomination, the Mountain Plains Library Association’s Literary Contribution Award and residencies at the Pima County Public Library and Sedona Summer Colony.
Lili is also a new contributor to Asian Geographic and stringer for Agence France-Presse. She has been contributing editor of Ethical Traveler, frequent contributor to the Tucson Green Times and Demand Media’s talent and expert network. Her work continues to be featured in a diverse range of publications and media including Verge magazine, USA Today, Hobby Farms and “The Mighty Colorado River: From the Glaciers to the Gulf.”
Lili is a writer and interviewer on “Destination Arizona” an Arizona Production Association/Cox Media TV series in the making and has appeared on FOX Daybreak and many NPR affiliates. She has served on the Save Rex Ranch Creative Advisory Board, Arizona Commission for the Arts grants review panel and Western National Parks Association‘s lecture series advisory.
A frequently consulted expert, Lili is designing a pilot course on AZ’s film history for Yavapai College’s Film and Media Arts summer program for teens in partnership with the Prescott Film Festival.
Originally from Philadelphia, she’s lived in Japan, Greece and South Africa, among other places and has extensive independent travel experience across six continents. She divides her time between Tucson and New England and can be found working on a novel loosely based on her experiences abroad, researching family history, cooking, playing with her kitten Aladdin and contributing to projects in the arts, environment and historic preservation.
More about Lili on Book Goodies
“Excellent. You changed my viewpoint about Arizona. Till now Arizona was just a desert. But the book brings out another side of the place” –Readers Favorite
Photo Credit: Leslie Leathers, Art by Ellen Jo Roberts
