Biography:

Poet; teacher of creative writing. Born– June 21, 1933, Attalla; moved to Pittsburgh,Pa as a child.  Parents–Aaron and Dorthera (Hedrick) Barrax. Married–Geneva Catherine Lucy, 1954.  Children–three.  Married Joan Dellimore. Children–two.  Education– Duquesne University, B.A., 1963; University of Pittsburgh, M.A., 1969; attended the University of North Carolina. U.S. Air Force, 1953-57.  U.S. Post Office, Pittsburgh, Pa., clerk and carrier, 1958-68; North Carolina Central University, instructor, 1969-70;  North Carolina State University, teacher of creative writing, Department of English, 1970-1997. Editor of Obsidian, a journal of African-American poetry and criticism, 1985-1996.  Published in many journals and anthologies.  Awarded the Gold Medal Award, Catholic Poetry Society; Broadside Press Award for Poetry, 1973; Callaloo Creative Writing Award for Nonfiction Prose, 1983; the Sam Regan Award for the Contributions to the Fine Arts in North Carolina, 1991; Raleigh Medal for Extraordinary Achievement in the Arts, 1993; nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Elected to the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, 2006.  Awarded status of professor emeritus on his retirement at NC State, 1997.

Source:

Black American Writers Past and Present; Contemporary Authors online; encyclopedia.com

Publication(s):

Another Kind of Rain. Pittsburgh; University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970.

An Audience of One. Athens, Ga.; University of Georgia Press, 1980.

Death of Animals and Lesser Gods.  University of Kentucky Press, 1984.

From a Person Sitting in Darkness:  New and Selected Poems.  Louisiana State University Press, 1998.

Leaning on the Sun; Poems. Fayetteville, Ark.; University of Arkansas Press, 1992.