Sibyl Ruth grew up in Manchester and later moved to the West Midlands. She started writing poetry when a long viral illness, ME, made it impossible for her to do much else. She has worked as a cook in a vegetarian restaurant, a gardener in a graveyard and has worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Carol Rumens was born in 1944 in South London. Based in Belfast for some years, where she was Poet in Residence at Queen’s University, she has also held residencies in Cork, Canterbury and Stockholm. She was Northern Arts Literary Fellow at Newcastle and Durham, and is now Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Wales, Bangor.

In 2004, Bloodaxe published her Poems 1968-2004, drawing on eleven poetry books as well as pamphlets and new or uncollected work. Her latest collection is Blind Spots (Seren, 2008). Carol Rumens has also published a novel, Plato Park, and written two plays, Nearly Siberia and Suzanne Hecabe. She has edited two anthologies, Making for the Open and New Women Poets, and translated several Russian poets with her partner, Yuri Drobyshev.