Barry Knister was born in Detroit in 1941. His family moved four years later to Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, where highly capable people in the public school system did what they could to educate him. Later, the same held true at Kalamazoo College, where he earned a BA. He then traveled and studied in Europe before beginning graduate work at Detroit’s Wayne State University. After completing a masters in English in the summer of 1966, he trained in Key West, Florida for the Peace Corps. That fall he was among the first Volunteers to be sent to what was then the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, otherwise known as Micronesia. For the next year he taught English on the island of Ponape in the Eastern Carolines, at P.I.C.S (Pacific Islands Central School).

During his second year of Peace Corps service he worked as an education administrator, seeking scholarships for Micronesian students. On returning to the U.S., Knister joined the English faculty of Lawrence Technological University. He was granted tenure in 1976 and remained a member of the humanities department until retiring in 2008. His first novel, a thriller titled The Dating Service was published by Berkley as a Jove mass-market paperback. He has published travel and humor in local markets. With his wife Barbara and their border collie Chelsea, Knister now divides his time between Michigan and Florida.