Barbara Rose Brooker

Who She Is

Barbara Rose Brooker is a San Francisco-native artist, author, and activist for age pride and human rights for people of all ages, abilities, and sexual orientations. With a BFA in painting and an MA in English Literature and Creative Writing, Barbara has spent decades exploring the emotional interior of human experience: on the page, on canvas, and on stage.

She is the author of thirteen published books, including novels, poetry, and creative nonfiction released by major publishers such as William Morrow and Simon & Schuster. Her work has been translated internationally, and her bestselling novel The Viagra Diaries, a bold, humorous, and unfiltered exploration of love and desire after sixty, has been published in more than a dozen countries and is in development for television. Her children's book, The Teapot Who Couldn't Whistle, and her latest novel will be released next year.

Joan Rivers

On Television & In the Press

Barbara has been featured in national and local media, with appearances on The Today Show, Inside Edition, Extra, ABC, CBS, Entertainment Tonight, and Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, as well as numerous San Francisco local shows, where she is known for her candor, wit, and refusal to disappear quietly from cultural conversation.

Her work has drawn praise from Joan Rivers, Paula Abdul, Ed Asner, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and countless readers who recognize themselves, their mothers, their grandmothers, their friends, in her pages.

Teacher & Mentor

Beyond publishing, Barbara is a respected teacher and mentor. She has taught creative writing through San Francisco State University (OLLI) and private workshops, working with writers and artists across generations. Her belief, repeated often and lived daily, is that creativity has no expiration date.

Age March: Activist

Barbara produced the first global Age March in history, a movement advocating age pride and human rights for people of all ages, genders, races, abilities, and sexual orientations. As both an artist and activist, she challenges the idea that cultural relevance, or dignity, belongs only to a select few, and proves otherwise through continued creation and public engagement. She is not interested in nostalgia. She is interested in what comes next.

Barbara Rose Brooker

Painting as Interior Life

Painting, for Barbara, is the visual counterpart to writing. Where words tell stories, paint records feelings: movement, longing, joy, romance, waiting, desire. Her artwork draws from dreams, relationships, and emotional memory, resulting in expressive florals, abstract gestures, and human figures that feel intimate rather than illustrative.

Her paintings are held in private collections and widely circulated through fine art platforms, and they translate beautifully into museum-quality prints and digital works suited for contemporary interiors, meaningful gifts, and ceremonial moments such as weddings and anniversaries.