Don McKay was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada in 1942. He was educated at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Wales, where he earned received a PhD in 1971. He taught creative writing and English for 27 years at several universities including the University of Western Ontario and the University of New Brunswick. He is a poet, who has published over 10 collections of poetry including Long Sault, Lependu, Camber: Selected Poems, and Apparatus. He has won several awards including the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1991 for Night Field and in 2000 for Another Gravity, the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry for Birding, or Desire, and the Griffin Poetry… Prize and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for Strike/Slip. He was an editor and publisher with Brick Books.