Ted Pearson was born and raised in Palo Alto, California. He began writing poetry in 1964 and subsequently attended Vandercook College of Music, Foothill College, and San Francisco State. His first book, The Grit, appeared in 1976. He has since published twenty-six books of poetry, including EXTANT GLYPHS: 1964-1980 (Singing Horse Press, 2014), AN INTERMITTENT MUSIC (Chax Press, 2016) and his most recent, Set Pieces (2021). He also co-authored The Grand Piano (2006-2010), a ten-volume experiment in collective autobiography. He now lives in Houston, Texas.