Jesse Patrick Ferguson was born and raised in Cornwall, Ontario. He holds a master's degree in English literature from the University of Ottawa, and he currently resides in Cape Beton, Nova Scotia. He is the author of five poetry chapbooks, and his work has appeared in prominent Canadian and international periodicals like Grain, Arc, The Fiddlehead, The New Quarterly, Magma Poetry, Harper's and Poetry Magazine, and he was a finalist for the 2009 CAA/BookTelevision Emerging Author Award. He is interested in folk music, and he plays several instruments, including the guitar, mandolin, violin, pennywhistle, bodhran, djembe and harmonica.