Jordie Albiston was born in 1961 and grew up in Melbourne. Her first collection of poems, 'Nervous Arcs', won the Mary Gilmore Award and was short listed for the NSW Premier's Prize. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and her poetry has been set to music by a number of different composers. In 2006 Jordie Albiston's biographical verse The Hanging of Jean Lee was used as the text for an opera first staged at the Sydney Opera House. The libretto was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Prize for Best Music-Theatre Script.