Amy is a memoir writer, travel writer and novelist.

Amy has contributed to the Raising Rippers column for Outside Magazine On-Line, writing weekly about raising adventurous children.  Her articles have also appeared in Mamalode, the High Desert Journal and British Airways On-Line. Her travel memoir Crossing the River: A Life in Brazil, published by SEAL Press, came out in November, 2015. Her article, co-written with her husband Peter Stark, for Outside Magazine about heatstroke, was chosen for the anthology Best Sports Writing 2020. She is currently working on a novel set in Brazil.
niches of the world: crossing China on foot, by boat and bus; camping on ice floes in Greenland, searching for matriarchs in West Africa and dancing through Indonesia.  Interested in raising “global children,” and fighting the growing American pressure to follow an increasingly high-pressure track, Amy and Peter have continued to follow the pattern with the birth of their own children. They’ve pulled off the track three times, moving to Spain with three year-old Molly and newborn son Skyler; then to Mozambique when the children had grown to six and ten; and finally, to Brazil with young teenagers.
Amy's yen for travel started when living abroad herself as a child.  This began as a two-year stint in Thailand as a toddler and continued with a second-grade year in the Philippines and middle school in Egypt. After marrying free-lance writer Peter Stark, they continued to delve into remote
“Doing what the best travel memoirs do — make readers want to hop a plane and walk in the author’s footsteps — Ragsdale’s insightful, incisive chronicle is also a cautionary tale about the rewards and sacrifices that come from acting on such adventurous impulses.” -- Booklist
“In this remarkably candid, emotionally packed, fast-reading narrative, Amy Ragsdale takes us… into a new comfort zone, with new-found friends, and elusively shifting values.  A fantastic read… because it reflects poignantly on so many elements of ourselves, our society, and our neighbors in foreign places.” — Jon Turk (author of Crocodiles and Ice, The Raven’s Gift), Amazon
“Fearless to embrace total immersion… (Ragsdale) displays a deep gratitude for the eye- opening adventures.”— Kirkus Reviews

Writing Samples