[2][better source needed] He transferred to the University of Victoria, where he graduated with a BA in Creative Writing in 1981.
Barton studied poetry with Eli Mandel, Gary Geddes, Robin Skelton, Joseph Brodsky, and Daniel Halpern.
Since 1980 his poems have appeared in seventy-five magazines and thirty anthologies in North America, the United Kingdom, India, and Australia.
In 2020, The Essential Douglas LePan, which he edited and introduced, won the eLit Award (Gold Category) for Poetry.
Lost Family: A Memoir was nominated for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry in 2021, the same year he was declared a Gay Icon by The Fiddlehead.