James Sheard was born in Cyprus in 1962, and spent his childhood abroad, mainly in Singapore and Germany. He is the author of three full collections of poetry: Scattering Eva (Cape Poetry, 2005), shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Glenn Dimplex Award for Poetry, and Dammtor (Cape Poetry, 2010), as well as a poetry pamphlet, Hotel Mastbosch (Mews Press, 2003), which was awarded the Ictus Prize. The Abandoned Settlements (Cape Poetry), deals with the literal and metaphorical abandoned places of one’s life. He currently lives in Powys and is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Keele University.