Tracey Herd was born in 1968 in East Kilbride but has lived on the east coast of Scotland for most of her life. She studied at Dundee University, where she was Creative Writing Fellow in 1998-2001. In 1993 she won an Eric Gregory Award, and in 1995 a Scottish Arts Council Bursary. In 2002 she collaborated on a short opera, Descent, with the composer Gordon McPherson for Paragon Ensemble which was performed at the Traverse Theatre in Glasgow. In 2004 she received a second Scottish Arts Council bursary. She is a freelance writer who worked for some years as a bookseller, and has latterly been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow. Her first collection, No Hiding Place (Bloodaxe Books, 1996) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second collection, Dead Redhead (2001), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her third collection is due from Bloodaxe in 2014.