"[1] Robert Sheppard was born in 1955 and was educated at the University of East Anglia (BA; MA; PhD).
In 1996 he moved from London to Liverpool to teach at Edge Hill University as Professor of Poetry and Poetics and Programme Leader of the MA in Creative Writing.
"Hymns to the God in which My Typewriter Believes", published in 2006, illustrates Sheppard's view of poetry as one art among many, as it alludes to and builds on other artforms.
According to Sean Colletti, Sheppard is a major talent, whose use of form includes precise use of the couplet,[4] while Alan Baker calls his work "political poetry of the first order.
"[5] Sheppard has edited important studies of poets Roy Fisher and Lee Harwood, and is editor of the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry" and the blogzine "Pages".