W.F. Lantry, a native of San Diego, is a widely published prize winning poet and fiction writer who has been featured in poetry journals and readings nationally and internationally. He currently lives in Washington, DC.

He taught for eight years at L’Université de Nice in France, earning his License and Maîtrise in English Literature, Linguistics and Translation. During this time, he won the Paris/Atlantic Young Writers Award. Boston  University awarded him a Fellowship tostudy with Derek Walcott and George Starbuck, who together directed his thesis. There he received an M.A. in English and Creative Writing. He holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston where he worked with Donald Barthelme, Ed Hirsch, Mary Robison, James Robison and Adam Zagajewski. He has taught at 12 different Universities on two continents in a variety of fields,most often Literature and Rhetoric, but also in History, Library Science, World Civilizations, and Information Technology. He served as Director of Academic Technology at a national research university in Washington, DC for 15 years.

Recently, he teamed with Kate Lantry, Ed Shacklee, and Micheal Linnard to launch Peacock Journal

His recent honors include:

Potomac Review Poetry Prize
Old Red Kimono LaNelle Daniel Prize
The Linnet’s Wings (Ireland) Audio Poetry Prize

Crucible Editors’ Poetry Prize
Atlanta Review International Publication Prize

CutBank Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry
Lindberg Foundation International Poetry for Peace Prize (Israel)
National Hackney Literary Award in Poetry
Comment Magazine Poetry Award

Lantry has four times been named finalist in the Premio Mundial Fernando Rielo de Poesía Mística (Spain). In 2010, he was named runner up for the UMB William Joiner Center Ellen LaForge Poetry Prize and the Hong Kong University Poetry Book Prize (China), he was commended for his entry in the International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine (UK), and in Canada received Honorable Mention for the Prairie Fire Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award. In 2012, he was nominated for five Pushcart Prizes in two genres on three continents. He has given readings of his poetry in California, Texas, Connecticut, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. While in Nice, he participated in Interspace, a project seeking to unify Poetry, Philosophy, Music and Visual Art. As part of the Interspace project, he gave readings at the Musée Chéret and Galerie Ponchettes in Nice, Centre Pompidou in Paris, La Sapienza, Università di Roma in Italy and collaborated on a multi-media event presented at the Roccabella in Monte Carlo under the patronage of and hosted by Prince Albert.

THIS Literary Magazine selected him as Spotlight Poet, and The Tower Journal featured his work. His chapbook, The Language of Birds, is a lyric retelling of Attar’s Conference of the Birds. The Structure of Desire (Little Red Tree Publishing) was his first full-length collection. It was followed by The Terraced Mountain, and will soon be joined by his forthcoming The Book of Maps.

He was featured in the DC area at the HearArts Spoken Word & Music Program in Rockville, the Takoma Park Poetry Reading Series and the Poetry Lab Series at The Soundry in Northern Virginia. Other recent engagements include the Kestrel Celebration at Fairmont State University, and in New York at The Poets House, the Dada Poetry Salon Series at Cornelia St. Café, the Fiele-Festa launch at KGB, and the String Poet Studio Series at the Long Island Violin Shop. His publication credits encompass print and online journals and anthologies, with his work translated into French, Arabic, Italian and Uzbek. He was the founding featured author of Eclectica, and new work has appeared in numerous publications in many countries including: Canada, Mexico, Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Syria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey, Israel, India, Indonesia, India, China and the UK.