John Barnie is a poet, essayist and editor from Abergavenny in South Wales. He was a lecturer in the University of Copenhagen from 1969 until 1982. Following his return to Wales he was appointed assistant editor of the magazine Planet: The Welsh Internationalist and took over as editor in 1990 until 2006. He is a prolific poet with collections from various presses, most recently Cinnamon Press and won an Arts Council of Wales Prize for Literature in 1990 with his essay collection The King of Ashes. A recent project with the Oxford Museum of Natural History based on his A Report to Alpha Centauri focuses on his concern for Nature and environmental issues.