Born in Paisley in 1948, Ian Nimmo White was the Professional Youth and Community Officer with Fife Council from 1972 to 2004, and lives in Leslie, Fife. He started writing seriously in 1994, and his poetry has appeared in many literary magazines across the UK and in Australia and Canada. From 1998 to 2003, he edited the magazine Fife Lines, a multi-level poetry journal supported by the Scottish Arts Council, which uniquely included the best work from senior high school pupils in Scotland. 

His collections include Standing Back (Petrel, 2000) and Symmetry (2007). His poem 'Kirkforthar' represented the area around the Lomond Hills in Fife as part of the Scottish Poetry Library's Poetry Map of Scotland.