Jim Barnes is an internationally recognized poet and translator. He is the author of many books of poetry, including The Sawdust War, Paris, and On a Wing of the Sun, as well as an autobiography, On Native Ground: Memoirs and Impressions, which won the American Book Award.  He is the Poet Laureate of Oklahoma for 2009-2010.

Poet Laureate of Oklahoma for 2009-2010."It is unlikely that there is a more cosmopolitan poet at work today than Jim Barnes. . . . Jiim Barnes has a distinguished record of publication, including important translations as well as his own works. . . .A rich collection."--Pleiades "Barnes explores the interplay between the poet's own personal vision of shape and colour and his attempts to relate what is perceived to the discerning eye perceiving it. . . . . Barnes is especially good at charting small human activities."--Poetry Salzburg Review