John Forbes was born in Melbourne in 1950 and lived in New Guinea, Malaya and Townsville until his family settled in Sydney in the early sixties. He gained a BA (Hons) at the University of Sydney in 1973 and moved to Melbourne in 1989. John Forbes continued to work in various jobs, including writer-in-residence, reviewer, freelance poetry tutor, and voluntary mentor to many younger poets. Over the years, he received a number of poetry prizes and Literature Board grants, allowing him to travel. John Forbes was widely published in Australia and esteemed by his many fans, students, peers and colleagues. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1998.