Ralf Andtbacka was born in 1963 in in the bilingual region of Ostrobothnia on the west coast of Finland. Since the 1980s he has been active as a writer, critic, literary administrator, and publisher. His first poetry collection came out in 1994. His most recent book was published in 2017. He has received several literary awards and has been nominated twice for the prestigious Runeberg prize and for the Finnish national radio poetry prize The Dancing Bear.