Elizabeth Burns was born in 1957, and brought up in Edinburgh. She has lived most of her life in Scotland, until moving to Lancaster a few years ago. While writing has been her primary drive in life, she has worked in various jobs whilst writing, including as a bookseller and for publishers. Since 1994 she has been teaching creative writing, for the Open College of the Arts, the University of Central Lancashire, and the Department of Continuing Education at Lancaster University. She has had three solo collections published - 'Ophelia and other poems' (Polygon, 1991), which was shortlisted for a Saltire Award for First Book of the Year, 'The Gift of Light' (Diehard, 1999) and 'The Lantern Bearers' (Shoestring, 2007) - and her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. Several of her short stories have been published and a collection of these and others is under consideration. Scotland's language, landscape, culture are abiding influences.