John Barnie (Q66889)

John Barnie (1941- ), poet and writer, was born in Abergavenny, Gwent. He attended King Henry VIII’s Grammar School, Abergavenny, before studying at the University of Birmingham where he graduated with a PhD in 1969. Following this, he taught English Literature at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he lived from 1969-1982, and in 1979 spent some time in Memphis, Tennessee as an Honorary Fellow for the Centre for Southern Folklore. After returning to Wales, Barnie became the editor of the magazine Planet: The Welsh Internationalist from 1990-2006. Barnie is a prolific poet and writer and has published several collections of poetry, works of fiction, and collections of essays, one of which, The King of Ashes, won a Welsh Arts Council Prize for Literature in 1990. His collection Trouble in Heaven was long listed for Wales Book of the Year 2008. He has also performed in a number of bilingual blues and poetry groups.