Stephen Scobie was born in Carnoustie in Scotland, and has lived in Canada since 1965. He gained a PhD from UBC in Vancouver, and taught at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and as Professor of English at the University of Victoria. He was a founder of Longspoon Press. In 1980, he won the Governor General's Award for Poetry for his collection McAlmon's Chinese Opera. In 1995 he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada. He has also written critical studies on subjects including Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, cubism and the work of the Canadian poet bpNichol, and in 1986 won the Prix Gabrielle Roy for Canadian criticism. The Spaces in Between: Selected Poems 1965-2001 was published by NeWest Press in 2003.