Gerald William Barrax

Who is Gerald William Barrax?

Gerald W. Barrax is a poet and educator. Bridging the poetic radicalism and experimentalism of the 1960s to the lyrical and confessional modes of the 1980s, the poetry of Gerald William Barrax draws on the life of the poet as well as the state of African American experience for its intimate power. Whether relating the details of his life with wife and children or questioning the roles of African American leaders, Barrax's poetry continually invokes anxieties concerning responsibility and participation in contemporary American life.

His poems appear in numerous anthologies and journals. He has been recognized by several prestigious awards, including the Raleigh Medal of Arts for "Extraordinary Achievement in the Arts" in 1993, the Sam Regan Award for contribution to the fine arts in North Carolina in 1991, and the 1983 Callaloo Creative Writing Award for Nonfiction Prose. In his role as a Professor of English in creative writing at North Carolina State University, Barrax strove to communicate integrity for the craft of poetry writing and passion for reading the best models of poetry.