Bill Manhire was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, in 1946. He was educated at the University of Otago (English literature) and University College London (Old Norse studies), and taught for many years at Victoria University of Wellington, where he led the International Institute of Modern Letters, which is home to the university’s well-known creative writing programme. He was New Zealand’s inaugural poet laureate, and in that capacity briefly visited the South Pole. He has published many books of poetry and short fiction, most recently Some Things to Place in a Coffin and The Stories of Bill Manhire. He has also edited a number of anthologies, including The Wide White Page: Writers Imagine Antarctica.