James Sheard was born in Cyprus in 1962, and spent his childhood abroad, mainly in Singapore and Germany. As an adult, he spent periods living in Hamburg and Helsinki. His work has appeared in various magazines and has been translated into German and Danish for publication and broadcast. He lives in Sheffield, where he recently completed the MA Writing at Sheffield Hallam, where he was awarded the 2003 Ictus Prize for poetry. The resulting pamphlet, Hotel Mastbosch, went on to be the Poetry Book Society's Pamphlet Choice for Winter 2003. He is currently working towards a practice-based PhD on translated poetry at Sheffield Hallam.