Essays written by Barbara Straus Lodge have appeared in The Rumpus, Voices of Addiction (2017,) Chicken Soup for the Soul, Random Acts of Kindness, (2017,) Parabola Magazine (2016,) The Good Men Project (2016,) The Literary Reflections section of Literary Mama (2014,) The Examined Life: A Literary Journal of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine (2014,) Eloji Gadugi Literary Journal (2014,) The New York Times Motherlode blog (2013,) and the LA Affairs section of the Los Angeles Times (2012). 

​

The Los Angeles Times published a 2019 Op-Ed regarding the dangers of smoke shops selling nitrous oxide. And a 2018 Op-Ed appeared in the Huffington Post involving society's perceptions of those struggling with drug addiction. 

 

Additionally, an essay entitled "It Takes A Villa" is in the anthology Blended, edited by Samantha Ducolax Waltz (Seal Press 2015), "Into the Light" is in the anthology Exit Laughing – How We Use Humor To Take The Sting Out Of Death, edited by Victoria Zacheim (North Atlantic Books/ Random House May 2012.) Essays have also been published in The Sun Magazine, Amarillo Bay Online Literary Magazine, and Whole Life Times Magazine.

 

Mirror Image, written under her pen name, Leigh Stuart, was published in the anthology Dear John I Love Jane, (Seal Press 2010) which was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist.  She co-edited the sequel anthology entitled Greetings from Janeland, (Cleis Press, 2017) which was also a Lambda Literary Award Finalist.

​

A native Angeleno, she earned a B.A. in English from UCLA, and a Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law.  She is on the Board of Visitors for the Pepperdine University School of Law and in 2018 founded Above the Noise Foundation which provides drug and alcohol free music festivals across the country. Additionally, 2016, she founded TruthTalks Workshops which provide facilitated workshops for parents struggling with their child's substance abuse.