The Creative Depository of Miranda and Erik Barfuss
Miranda
Miranda Barfuss (she/her) is an overgrown lifelong literature student, fellow traveler, wife, mother, municipal government employee, and writer living in Naperville, Illinois. She has a rock and roll covenant heart full of the mystery and writes because emotions are trustworthy. Her work has been published in the 30N Literary Review, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, Clayjar Review and Dreamers Creative Writing. Her book, Mindy, God, and Things I’m Not Supposed to Say debuted in September 2025.
Erik
Erik Barfuss (he/him) is a humble drummer who won’t admit to being a multi-instrumentalist, a picture taker who won’t admit to being a photographer, a downplayed multi-engine pilot, and a gratefully admitted father and husband, employed by the aerospace industry. He is born, raised and residing in Naperville, Illinois.
Mindy, God, and Things I’m Not Supposed to Say is a new picture of faith from a half-Japanese suburban mother with a suicidal, bulimic, promiscuous past, and a present mystical spirituality that is honest, profane and countercultural. With humor and an open heart, this hybrid memoir delves into the mysteries of faith, intimacy, serving, parenting, the church of the future, and the spiritual promise and power of creativity.
Not your typical reformed sinner narrative, this timely, poetic and wildly entertaining confessional book takes on tough personal topics and leaves you comforted, laughing, rock and rolling, and reflective in a way that may change the way you view life, God, and the world we live in.
Read Our Substack
Subscribe to get our latest stories in your inbox.
Poetry & Prose
Roseanne
OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters
“Roseanne was a woman I knew before I knew her. She was considered caustic in Lanford, Illinois, all fictive, but not fictive. We were in Lombard, Illinois, and she was every woman I saw and knew and named–but women, my mother for example, were not sure about Roseanne.”
Spirit Sing For Me
Crosswinds Poetry Journal
“Spirit sing for me
when I lock up my tongue with fear.
Spirit push this shame out of my face
and spirit give me small talk balls
to pick up and crush in my hands.”
Nature Said
Lighter Side of Dairymen’s
“Nature said–I need a break from all you howling snowmobiles. I need a slumber in a warm spa. I need a confusion to get you bipeds back on your feet. So we stood. So we ambulated.”
Mating Dance
Dreamers Creative Writing
“We sat the deck after whiffle ball, tunes turning, and little mites landing on the neck of the wine bottle and two ducks, man, woman, they flew over our heads in a love chase, big sweeping circles. Whoosh around. Whoosh around. They hurdled our tree branches, threading the streaking space of the air as you and I have done.”
Paradise
Clayjar Review
“How would you not trip, falling
into paradise every second? When
the sky times with the music of
an old man with the same soul and
the ocean is awash with contemplation
for every human begotten.”
Mother
30 North Literary Journal
“Mother, you deserve someone to talk to.
You deserve someone to listen to you, the gift of open ears and heart.
An honest assessment with emotional involvement.
Someone who can remain objective or latitudinous in their discretion.”
Barefoot Speaking 