Career
He was poet laureate of the City of Santa Barbara from 2005 to 2007. Spacks was the advisor for Into the Teeth of the Wind, an annual poetry magazine sponsored by UCSB"s College of Creative Studies. In the magazine"s 2014 edition, which was dedicated to Spacks, editor Mel Rosenberg wrote in her editor"s note: "He was the guide and advisor to this publication for many years and will continue to be its heart for many more."
Former United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky said of Spacks, "Barry Spacks, as many have noted, was a profoundly youthful, bright spirit, a quality that infused his writing and his social presence." Author Tobias Wolff wrote that he kept Spacks" poem "Like a Prism" hanging above his typewriter.
He also said of Spacks" story collection There"s Always a Girl, "As witty as these stories are, both in conception and the writing itself, they never lose sight of the humanity of the people at their heart."
What psychological insight! What red-bloodedness! What tonal range! What holy tomfoolery!".