Lynne Hjelmgaard was born in 1951 in New York city and moved to Denmark in 1971. She studied at the Aarhus Art Academy and graduated from Frøbel Seminarium in Copenhagen. She taught Creative Art for children in various schools and institutions before becoming a full time sailor. As a result of crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat with her husband she wrote poems that were later published in the chapbook, Distance Through the Water in 2002. (I Want Press, France). Her first collection, Manhattan Sonnets was published in 2003. (Redbeck Press, U.K). In 2007 she received a Residency grant for the Danish Academy in Rome. Manhattan Sonnets was recorded in CD format with Brockhoff’s Arhiv in Denmark in 2008, as was her 22 page poem The Coconut Rat Diary. Her work has appeared in many literary magazines such as Acumen, The Rialto, Poetry Wales and Shearsman. She divides her time between London and Copenhagen.