Born in East Centreville, New Brunswick he served overseas in the Canadian Army during the Second World War.
A teacher at the age of sixteen, Cogswell gained a BA(Hons) and MA at the University of New Brunswick and received a PhD from Edinburgh University presenting the thesis "Concept of America in English literature of the romantic period".
In 1958, Cogswell, along with friend and fellow poet Warren Kinthompson as well as a group of students and faculty from the University of New Brunswick founded Fiddlehead Poetry Books, now one of Canada's important small press publishers operating as Goose Lane Editions.
His poetry has been published in magazines, journals, anthologies and textbooks and has been translated into several languages including Chinese, Romanian, Spanish, and French.
The Fred Cogswell Award For Excellence In Poetry was founded in 2014 and is an annual event open to Canadian poets.