Ray Givans was born and reared in the village of Castlecaulfield, Co. Tyrone. He attended Stranmillis Teacher Training College, Belfast, and was awarded a B.Ed from Queen’s University. He completed a Master’s degree in Education at the University of Bath, and has been a teacher of English at secondary schools in Co. Down. He has published four pamphlet-length poetry collections, including two from Lapwing Publications; the most recent being Going Home (2004). He was also involved in a poetry/artwork collaboration, Earth Works, with artist Tony Martin, which was published by Subway, Bristol in 2003. Ray Givans has been awarded prizes for his poetry in Britain, the U.S. and Australia and was the first recipient of the Jack Clemo Memorial prize for poetry. He has been guest editor of Christianity and the Arts, the Chicago based journal. His work was included in Artwords (2000), an anthology of emerging or newly emerged artists and poets from Ulster.