After decades of honing his writing skills and working in fields as far ranging as singer-songwriter, carpenter, computer salesman and police officer, J. Barrett Wolf was chosen one of eight poets on the Connecticut Touring Artists Roster in 1992. He went on to win first prize at the Stamford Festival of the arts for his poem 'Old North Field' in 1993.

He hosted an monthly open mike at River Read Books in Binghamton for eight years, where he edited their first chapbook anthology, "RiverReadings: The Open Mike Poets of River Read Books 2011."

His work has been selected for fourteen anthologies, including Rubber Side Down: The Biker Poet Anthology (Archer Press), Passing (Poetworks Press), Long Island Sounds 2009 and 2010, Corona (Walt Whitman Birthplace Association), as well as winning a publication trifecta for the Limestone Dust Poetry Festival Anthologies in 2008, 2009 and 2010 when he featured at the festival reading. His work has also appeared the Portland Review of the Arts, Black Bear Review, Scarecrow and Sherim, as well as online in Ragazine.cc, Poetry Super Highway: 11th annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, Motorgedichten.punt.nl (Dutch), and Not Just Air (Issues #1 & #9) . Wolf's first volume of poetry, “Stark Raving Calm,” was published in June of 2011. He lives in Binghamton, New York, where he is Poet in Residence at the Bundy Museum of History and Art, and Director of WordPlace - The Southern Tier Literary Center.

He has attended the Arran Poetry Adventure/Retreat in Scotland seven times.

His work and commentaries can be found on FaceBook.