Paul Munden was born in Poole, Dorset, in 1958. He won scholarships to the Winchester Cathedral Choir School, and to Canford. He then graduated from York University and has lived in North Yorkshire ever since.

He worked as a creative writing tutor in adult education and for various universities, before becoming Director of NAWE, the National Association of Writers in Education.

He received an Eric Gregory Award in 1987 and his poems have appeared in many anthologies, including the Faber Book of Movie Verse, Faber’s Poetry Introduction 7, and Quintet (Staple First Editions 1993). For the British Council, he has been the Writer-in-Residence at several Anglo-Swiss conferences on themes including ‘Ethics and Predictive Medicine’ and ‘The traffic in cultural artefacts from Iraq and Afghanistan’, and ‘The Role of Cultural Relations in Addressing Conflict’. He is the editor ofFeeling the Pressure: Poetry and Science of Climate Change (British Council 2008).