Barrett Warner (born April 1, 1962) is an American short story writer, poet, essayist, critic, and editor.

[3] His interest in journey-to-the-edge writing began after reading The Magical Monarch of Mo by L. Frank Baum.

After college, he was a finalist for a Wallace Stegner fellowship at Stanford University,[4] but he moved into his grandmother's Buick and lived on the road.

[3][5] In 1990, the Tropos Press in Baltimore, MD, published a chapbook of Warner's poems entitled 'Til I'm Blue in the Face.

[3] Ed Ochester, editor of Pitt Poetry Series, has said "Barrett Warner's poems are characteristically a mixture of the Marx Brothers, Russell Edson and James Tate, with touches of Dorothy Parker and H.P.

"[6] Currently, Warner is the general editor for Free State Review, a biannual literary journal founded in 2012.

Jenny Keith, the interviewer, describes how Warner's poetry "reflects his vigorous daily life working on a horse farm, foaling mares, pitching hay, mending fences.

Warner says that the "'beautiful forms' that poets such as Strand seek to preserve are no longer as relevant as they once were: “Nowadays, with all of the fantasies perpetuated by advertising and tabloid journalism, people are out of touch.