Maggie Graham was born in Ayrshire. She failed her eleven-plus and left school at fifteen, then worked in various factories, producing everything from bras to detonators, before marrying and having three children. She later returned to education, eventually gaining a degree in English Literature at the University of Glasgow. Since then she has worked on community writing programmes and had her work published in various journals and anthologies, including New Writing Scotland. Maggie Graham is the winner of the 2000 Robert Louis Stevenson Award.