Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow and grew up in Stafford. She has published six collections of poems for adults and has received many awards. She won the 1993 Whitbread Award for Poetry and the Forward Prize for best collection for Mean Time. The World's Wife received the E. M. Forster Award in America. She is currently Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. She was appointed Britain's Poet Laureate in 2009.