John Barr Bio
John Barr was born in Omaha in 1943 and grew up in an unincorporated township outside of Chicago. He went to Harvard College on a Navy scholarship and graduated with honors in 1965. For the next five years he served as a Naval officer on destroyers and went to Vietnam three times. He graduated from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar in 1972. In a Wall Street career that spanned 30 years he was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, founded three start-ups including the country's first natural gas marketing company, and was active in restructuring the electric and gas utility industries.
Over the past 30 years his poems have been published in six books, four fine press editions, and many magazines. His recent books include The Boxer of Quirinal and Dante in China (Red Hen Press, 2023 and 2018). He served for many years on the boards of arts organizations and of Bennington College. In 2013 he retired after ten years as inaugural President of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. The Foundation publishes Poetry magazine and is the recipient of a major financial gift from Ruth Lilly.
He and his wife Penny were classmates at Lisle High School and live in Greenwich, CT. Their two sons live in Los Angeles and Nashville, and their daughter lives in Los Angeles.
John Barr Bio
John Barr was born in Omaha in 1943 and grew up in an unincorporated township outside of Chicago. He went to Harvard College on a Navy scholarship and graduated with honors in 1965. For the next five years he served as a Naval officer on destroyers and went to Vietnam three times. He graduated from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar in 1972. In a Wall Street career that spanned 30 years he was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, founded three start-ups including the country's first natural gas marketing company, and was active in restructuring the electric and gas utility industries.
Over the past 30 years his poems have been published in six books, four fine press editions, and many magazines. His recent books include The Boxer of Quirinal and Dante in China (Red Hen Press, 2023 and 2018). He served for many years on the boards of arts organizations and of Bennington College. In 2013 he retired after ten years as inaugural President of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. The Foundation publishes Poetry magazine and is the recipient of a major financial gift from Ruth Lilly.
He and his wife Penny were classmates at Lisle High School and live in Greenwich, CT. Their two sons live in Los Angeles and Nashville, and their daughter lives in Los Angeles.