Anthony Glavin was born in 1945 in Dublin where he studied at both Trinity College and University College, Dublin. Anthony Glavin received his licentiate from the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) and taught in there from 1969.

His poetry appeared in numerous newspapers and journals and was first anthologised in Irish Poets 1924-74. In 1987 he won the Patrick Kavanagh Award. His collection The Wrong Side of the Alps was published in 1989.  He received an Arts Council of Ireland bursary and his collection was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards.

He died in Dublin in 2006.