Matthew Gwathmey was born in Richmond, Virginia and studied creative writing at the University of Virginia. His poems have appeared in Grain Magazine, Crazyhorse, Prairie Fire, The Iowa Review, and other literary magazines. He became a Canadian citizen in 2013 and lives with his wife and children in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where he is a PhD student at UNB. He also works at The Learning Bar on the Confident Learners Program, a literacy program created with First Nations schools across Canada. This is his first book.