Lar­ry Barak was born in Chica­go in 1942 to Russ­ian immi­grant par­ents with Hasidic roots. As a stu­dent of Eng­lish at Roo­sevelt Uni­ver­si­ty, he won first prize for poet­ry in the Charles F. McEl­roy Lit­er­ary Con­test. After receiv­ing his B.A., he con­tin­ued his poet­ry stud­ies in the M.A. pro­gram of the Grad­u­ate School of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois at Chica­go Circle.

In 1969, Barak moved to Israel with his wife, set­tling in Kib­butz Lavi where he has been liv­ing ever since. His prize-win­ning poem in the Ruben Rose Poet­ry Con­test led to his join­ing the Voic­es group of Israeli poets writ­ing in English.

As well as writ­ing poet­ry in both Hebrew and Eng­lish, he is also an accom­plished poet­ry trans­la­tor, his trans­la­tions appear­ing in var­i­ous lit­er­ary publications.