Maurice Mierau was born in Indiana and grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas, and Saskatchewan. His first book of poems, Ending with Music was a finalist for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award, and Mierau was short-listed for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Author. Memoir of a Living Disease, his non-fiction book, won a Margaret McWilliams Award. His work has been published in Arc, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire and other magazines. He lives with his family in Winnipeg.