Gavin Bowd was born in Galashiels in 1966, spent his childhood in the Scottish Borders and Hong Kong, and studied and taught in Paris and St Andrews. He now teaches in the School of Modern Languages at the University of St Andrews.

He was one of the founding directors of the StAnza poetry festival, and his poetry, fiction and translations have been widely published. He has written much on Scottish and European literature and politics, with special interests in French and Romanian politics and culture. He has published on Ian Hamilton Finlay, and Kenneth White and geopoetics.

His poetry collections include Technique (1999) and Camouflage (2001).