Nicky Beer is from the Long Island town of Northport, NY. She holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Houston, and the University of Missouri- Columbia. She has received a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Louis Untermeyer Tuition Scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and a Discovery/ The Nation Award. She is married to the poet Brian Barker, and teaches at the University of Colorado, Denver.