John Challis was born in London in 1984 and now lives in York. In 2015 he was a poet-in-residence with the Northern Poetry Library and chosen as one of the Poetry Trust's Aldeburgh Eight. His other residences have included ones at Keats Shelley House in Rome, and at Seaton Delaval Hall, a National Trust property in Northumberland, which produced Hallsong, a collaboration with filmmaker Christo Wallers. His pamphlet, The Black Cab (Poetry Salzburg, 2017), was a 2019 New Writing North Read Regional title. His poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and published in journals including Magma, The North, Poetry London, The Rialto, Stand, and elsewhere. He has received a Pushcart Prize and a Northern Writers' Award for his work.