Justin Quinn was born in Dublin in 1968. He has published two collections with Carcanet, The 'O'o'a'a' Bird (shortlisted for the Forward Prize 1995) and Privacy (1999). UCD Press published his Gathered Beneath The Storm: Wallace Stevens, Nature and Community in 2002. He has published two collections with The Gallery Press, Fueslage (2002) and Waves and Trees (2006).

He was a founder editor of Metre, lecturer at the Charles University, Prague, and a translator of Czech poetry. He is the current holder of the Heimbold Chair in Irish Studies, Villanova University, Pennsylvania and is married to Tereza Límanová with whom he has two sons, Finbar and Manus.