Born in Dunedin in 1942, Dunstan Ward studied at the University of Canterbury, then taught at Waikato University. In 1971 he left for London, and in 1973 settled in Paris, retiring as Professor of English at the University of London Institute in Paris in 2007; he still teaches a weekly seminar at the Paris centre of Columbia University (New York). With Beryl Graves, the poet's widow, he edited the Complete Poems of Robert Graves. Departures is his third poetry collection.