Fred Voss has been a machinist for much of his life, picking up the pen and the wrench to chronicle what goes on between tin walls. He has published three books of poems with Bloodaxe, Goodstone (1991), Carnegie Hall with Tin Walls (1998) and Hammers and Hearts of the Gods (Bloodaxe Books, 2009; Pearl Editions, USA, 2016), and a novel, Making America Strong (World Parade Books, US, 2015). His work has been featured prominently by the magazines Bête Noire in Britain and the Wormwood Review in the States, and he won the 1988 Wormwood Award. Love Birds, a collaboration with his poet wife Joan Jobe Smith, won the 1996 Chiron Prize. He has twice been the subject of feature programmes about his poetry on BBC Radio 4. He lives in Long Beach, California, and works in a nearby factory. Carnegie Hall with Tin Walls is still in print with Bloodaxe but Hammers and Hearts of the Gods must be ordered from Pearl Editions in the US.
