Paul Farley was born in Liverpool in 1965, and studied at the Chelsea School of Art. He has published four collections with Picador, The Boy From the Chemist is Here to See You (1998), The Ice Age (2002), Tramp in Flames (2006) and The Dark Film (2012), and has received many awards for his work, including most recently the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.