Suzanne Batty was born in Plymouth, 20 minutes after her twin sister, and upside down. Her family moved to suburban Manchester when she was two. She worked with young homeless people in London before studying English at Sussex University; she then worked variously as a gardener, a youth worker, a welfare rights advisor and suffered for several years as a civil servant. Although she has always written, Suzanne did not start writing poetry seriously until her 30s. She was one of the winners of the Poetry Business pamphlet competition in 1997 with Shrink (Smith/Doorstop), and received a writer’s bursary from North West Arts in 1999. She is a founder member of urban poetry project The A6 Poets, and lives in Manchester, where she writes, teaches writing, performs her work, edits the poetry magazine Rain Dog and digs her allotment. She is also studying for an MA at Sheffield Hallam University. Her first collection, The Barking Thing was published by Bloodaxe in 2007.