Maggie Anderson was born on September 23, 1948, in New York to parents who were both teachers. She is the author of four books of poems, most recently Windfall: New and Selected Poems published in 2000. Her other books include Cold Comfort (1986) and A Space Filled with Moving (1992).
Anderson is also the editor of the new and selected poems of Louise McNeill and co-editor of Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry about School and A Gathering of Poets, an anthology of poems read to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the shootings of students in an anti-war protest at Kent State University in 1970. Recent poems have been published in The Alaska Quarterly, The Georgia Review, and The American Poetry Review.
