David Waltner-Toews has published a half dozen poetry collections spanning the last quarter-century, most recently The Fat Lady Struck Dumb. His work has also appeared in a dozen collections around the country.

A professor of epidemiology in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Guelph, he has published several collections of witty and informative essays, with titles like Food, Sex and Salmonella: The Risks of Environmental Intimacy and One Animal Among Many: Gaia, Goats and Garlic. One Foot in Heaven is his first published work of fiction.

Born in Winnipeg, David Waltner-Toews travelled around the world after high school. His education and work careers have also led him to Indiana, Saskatoon, Grand Prairie, the French West Indies, Indonesia, and Kitchener/Guelph. He lives in Kitchener and teaches in Guelph.