Nikki-Lee Birdsey was born in Auckland, New Zealand. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fence, LIT, Hazlitt, 3:AM Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the author of the chapbook Free That Hooker (Aero Press, 2012). She is a PhD candidate at the International Institute for Modern Letters at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.