Poet Ed Ochester grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He earned a BA from Cornell University, an MA from Harvard University, and an MFA from the University of WisconsinMadison. A longtime editor of the Pitt Poetry Series (University of Pittsburgh Press), he is the founding editor of the journal 5AM. His own collections of poetry include We Like It Here (1967); Dancing on the Edge of Knives (1973), winner of the Devins Award for Poetry; Miracle Mile (1984); Allegheny (1995); Snow White Horses: Selected Poems 19731988 (1988); The Land of Cockaigne (2001); and Unreconstructed: Poems Selected and New (2007).

Ochesters work has garnered awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For his contributions to the arts, he received the George Garrett Award from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs in 2006 and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trusts Creative Achievement Award in 2001.