Tracey Herd was born in 1968 in East Kilbride and studied at Dundee University. In 1993 she won an Eric Gregory Award, and in 1995 a Scottish Arts Council Bursary. She has published several collections with Bloodaxe Books, including No Hiding Place (1996), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection; Dead Redhead (2001), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; and Not in This World (2015), a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.