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Jim Weaver McKown Barnes, of Choctaw and Welsh descent, was born near Summerfield, Oklahoma. He received his BA from Southeastern State College in Durant, Oklahoma, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, in 1964 and his MA and Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas. He taught at Truman State University from 1970 to 2003, where he was Professor of Comparative Literature and Writer-in-Residence. After retiring from Truman State, he was Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at Brigham Young University until 2006. On January 15, 2009, Barnes was named Oklahoma Poet Laureate for 2009-2010.
Barnes is the founding editor of the Chariton Review Press, editor of The Chariton Review from 1975 through 2007, and contributing editor to the Pushcart Prize. He has published over 500 poems in more than 100 journals, as well as numerous translations. He has sat on several National Endowment for the Arts committees and is presently Poetry Editor for the Truman State University Press and first-round judge for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Barnes has given scores of readings at college and university campuses, and his work is widely anthologized.
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