Stephen McInerney grew up in Kiama on the New South Wales south coast, and attended boarding school in Sydney. He studied at the Australian National University, where he won the University Medal in English, the University of Sydney, where he was awarded his PhD, and the University of Cambridge, where he won the Theological Studies Prize. His previous book of poems, In Your Absence, was recommended in The Times Literary Supplement ‘Books of the Year’ in 2002. He lives in Sydney with his wife Eleni and their son Gerard, and is Senior Lecturer in Literature at Campion College.