Andrew McNeillie was born in North Wales and read English at Magdalen College, Oxford before becoming an editor and publisher. For a key period in his life, he was literature editor at Oxford University Press. He has also held a chair in English at Exeter University where he is now Emeritus Professor. He is the founding editor of the magazine Archipelago and runs the Clutag Press. His memoir Once appeared in 2009 from Seren. His Carcanet poetry collections are Nevermore (2000), Now, Then (2002), Slower (2006), In Mortal Memory (2010) and Winter Moorings (2014).