Ola Larsmo was born in 1957 in Sundbyberg and has lived in Västervik for ten years.
He studied at Uppsala University, mainly in North Germanic languages, literature, theology and history.
[1] Larsmo was editor of BLM from 1984 to 1990, and now works as writer and freelance critic, mainly for Dagens Nyheter.
He was a member of the board at Författarförbundet ("Authors association") until May 2003.
As of 2011[update], he has been living in Uppsala.