Hugh McMillan works as a history teacher in Dumfries and lives in Penpont. He has five full collections of poetry, the last two being Strange Bamboo (Shoestring 2008) and The Lost Garden (Roncadora Press 2010). He is a past winner of the Smith Doorstep prize and the Scottish National Open Poetry Competition. He has also published several pamphlets: Postcards from the Hedge won the Callum Macdonald Memorial Prize in 2009 and After the Storm was a winner in the Smith/Doorstep Poetry Prize in 2004.