John Barnie is a poet and essayist from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. He taught for a number of years at Copenhagen University before returning to Wales to work for the political and cultural magazine Planet: The Welsh Internationalist, as assistant editor
(1985–90) and editor (1990–2006).
He is the author of over twenty collections of poetry and essays, many of which are concerned with the environment and the natural world. His work has been translated into Italian, Danish and Estonian. A collection of essays, The King of Ashes, was awarded
a Welsh Books Council Prize for Literature.
A blues guitarist, he has performed in a number of blues and poetry bands, including the bilingual Y Bechgyn Drwg/The Bad Boys, and the trio Hollow Log.
