Sally Read was born in Suffolk in 1971. She trained and worked as a psychiatric nurse in London while completing a BA with the Open University, and went on to earn her Master of Arts at the University of South Dakota, USA. She has since taught English in both London and Sardinia, and divides her time between Italy and Suffolk. She received an Eric Gregory Award in 2001. Her two poetry collections with Bloodaxe are The Point of Splitting (2005), which was shortlisted for the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Prize, and Broken Sleep. (2009).