Glyn Maxwell was born in 1962 in Welwyn Garden City, where he grew up. He studied English at Oxford and poetry at Boston University. As well as his four poetry books, he has published a novel, Blue Burneau (Chatto, 1994), shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Prize, and three verse plays in Gnyss the Magnificent (Chatto, 1993). He currently teaches poetry at Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and daughter.