John Matthias was born in 1941 in Columbus, Ohio. For many years he taught at the University of Notre Dame and, after many years as poetry editor of Notre Dame Review, he is now Editor-at-Large of that journal. He has been a Visiting Fellow in poetry at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and lived for much of the 70s and 80s in East Anglia. His books of verse include Turns, Crossing, Northern Summer, A Gathering of Ways, Swimming at Midnight, Beltane at Aphelion, Pages, Working Progress, Working Title, New Selected Poems, and Kedging. He has also published translations from the Swedish, editions of David Jones' work, and volumes of literary criticism. Since 2010, Shearsman has republished all of his poetry in the volumes Trigons (2010), Collected Shorter Poems Vol. 2 (2011), Collected Longer Poems (2012), Collected Shorter Poems Vol. 1 (2013) and Complanyntes for Doctor Neuro, And Other Poems (2016). In 2011 Shearsman also pubished his previous essay collection, Who was Cousin Alice? And Other Essays.