Barry Benjamin McKinnon was born on January 1, 1944, in Calgary, Alberta.

He is a Canadian poet, editor, and educator. He attended Mount Royal College in Montreal from 1963 to 1965, Sir George Williams University (B.A., 1967) and the University of British Columbia (M.A., 1969). In 1969, he was hired by the College of New Caledonia in Prince George, British Columbia, where he has taught English since and where he also operates Gorse Press. In the 1970s, he founded and edited the New Caledonia Writing Series, an important forum for B.C. poets. He is the author of numerous collections of poems. McKinnon was awarded Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 1992 (“Pulplog”), bp Nichol Chap-Book Award in 1995 (“Arrythmia”), and 2004 (“Bolivia/Peru”). In 1981, he was the finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award (“The The”).