Barton Sutter is a Lutheran preacher's son and was raised in a large rural family.
He then spent a number of years as a senior lecturer of English at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, retiring from that position in 2010.
Sutter was an essayist for the "Voices from the Heartland" series on Minnesota Public Radio from 1991 to 1997.
He has published poems, stories, and essays in such publications as The North American Review, Poetry, Live Music, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Minnesota Monthly.
Sutter is the only author to win the Minnesota Book Award in three separate categories: in fiction for My Father's War and Other Stories, in creative non-fiction for Cold Comfort, and in poetry with The Book of Names: New and Selected Poems.