Barry McCrea (born 15 October 1974) is an Irish writer and academic. He grew up in Dalkey, County Dublin, and was educated at the Jesuit Gonzaga College, and Trinity College, Dublin (1993–1997) where he studied French and Spanish literature. He received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2004. He taught Comparative Literature at Yale University, where he was appointed full professor in 2012. He is currently professor of literature at the University of Notre Dame. The First Verse was published in Spanish as Literati (DestinoLibro, 2006) and in German as Die Poeten der Nacht (Aufbau, 2008).