Knute Skinner was born in the United States but has lived in County Clare, Ireland, since 1964. His poetry has appeared widely in Ireland, Britain, Australia, and North America. For some years he taught literature and creative writing part of each year at Western Washington University. Skinner has also served as editor of Bellingham Review and director of Signpost Press, as well as on the editorial board of the Irish journal New Series: Departures. He is the author of eleven collections of poetry, including Stretches (2002), The Cold Irish Earth—New & Selected Poems of Ireland (1997), and What Trudy Knows and Other Poems (1994), all from Salmon Publishing. Skinner’s poems have also appeared in numerous anthologies, including Irish Poetry Now: Other Voices (Wolfhound, 1994) and Or Volge L'Anno—At the Year's Turning: An Anthology of Irish Poets Responding to Leopardi (Dedalus, 1998).  

Photo by Noreen Walshe