Barrett Warner

Barrett Warner (born April 1, 1962) is an American short story writer, poet, essayist, critic, and editor. The author of Until I’m Blue in the Face, My Friend Ken Harvey (2014), and Why Is It So Hard to Kill You? (2016), his work has appeared in numerous literary journals and zines. He is a recipient of the Salamander fiction prize, the Tucson Festival of Books essay prize, and the Liam Rector, Chris Toll Memorial Chapbook, Cloudbank, and Princemere poetry prizes. He is married to author and poet Julia Wendell. His interest in journey-to-the-edge writing began after reading The Magical Monarch of Mo by L. Frank Baum. He earned a B.A. in English and American Studies from the College of William and Mary, where he was awarded the G. Glenwood Clark Poetry Prize as well as the Thomas Jefferson Prize in Linguistics

In 1990, the Tropos Press in Baltimore, MD, published a chapbook of Warner's poems entitled 'Til I'm Blue in the Face.

Currently, Warner is the general editor for Free State Review, a biannual literary journal founded in 2012. It is published in print and features Drama, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry.

Warner is the previous Chief of Stables at An Otherwise Perfect Farm in Upperco, Maryland. He currently lives in Aiken, South Carolina where he serves as Acquisitions Editor for Galileo Books as well as editor of Free State Review.

Style In "Barbarians at the Gate: Mark Strand, Barrett Warner, and Jorie Graham," an interview that originally appeared in the Baltimore City Paper, Warner describes himself as a confessional poet: "All confessional means to me is this...I live the poem before I write it." When writing about his own personal pain, he sees himself as both victim and perpetrator. Jenny Keith, the interviewer, describes how Warner's poetry "reflects his vigorous daily life working on a horse farm, foaling mares, pitching hay, mending fences. The poems are richly descriptive, rendering his experiences with acute realism and little if any dramatic embellishment." 2013 Two Hands Liam Rector Prize 2014 Dimension The Salamander Fiction Prize 2015 My Thousand Year Old Disease Tucson Festival of Books essay prize 2016 Nonfiction MSAC Individual Artist Award (IAA)