Barry A. Lanier Biography

Barry, grew up on a farm in rural Georgia, working on the farm until college where he attended Georgia Southern College and later Mercer University Southern School of Pharmacy. After pharmacy school, Barry farmed for four years before economics forced him to practice pharmacy, which he also loved because of his passion for people. In and out of pharmacy, Barry has been a songwriter, an insurance agent, went back to Georgia Southern entering the MBA program, which he had to dropp out of after opening a retail sporting goods store. The outdoors and sporting and hunting and fishing always a passion. Returning to pharmacy, traveling the state for years, taking a haitus and learning to drive an 18-wheeler, always a goal, he has a CDL license. Currently Barry has earned a Master's degree in Community Counseling from Georgia Southern University and is working as a counselor/therapist.
He became interested in writing in high school when his mentor, Jessie Bird, suggested he had an innate creative talent after he wrote 'Moment In The Morn'. Only some 25 years later did he start back writing. Discovering his geneaology and heritage included being a descendant of Sidney Clopton Lanier who wrote 'Marshes of Glynn', and of Thomas Lanier (Tennessee Williams) who was originally a failed poet, Barry was motivated to begin his journey of writing. Many of his poems have been published nationally and internationally and he has been honored for a decade by the International House of Poetry for many awards. His new book ' A Slice of Life-Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet' is scheduled for publication in the Summer of 2009.
When asked about his poetry, Barry admits, ' I have no special ambition, other than to give back hopefully a portion of what has been freely given to me, and should my written words help just one person, then my efforts have been a success.'