Coleman Barks (born April 23, 1937) is an American poet and former literature faculty member at the University of Georgia.

Although he neither speaks nor reads Persian,[1] he is a popular interpreter of Rumi, rewriting the poems based on other English translations.

[4] Due to his work, the ideas of Sufism have crossed many cultural boundaries over the past few decades.

[citation needed] Barks has been criticized for removing references to Islam from the poetry of Rumi.

[7] Barks has published several volumes of his own poetry, including Gourd Seed, "Quickly Aging Here", Tentmaking, and, in 2001, Granddaughter Poems, a collection of his poetry about his granddaughter, Briny Barks, with illustrations by Briny.