Gilbert Allen was born in Rockville Centre, New York, and grew up on Long Island. Educated at Cornell University, where he earned the B.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. degrees, he is currently a professor of English at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. A co-editor of the Ninety-Six Press, he has published three previous collections of verse, the last two with Orchises: Second Chances (1991) and Commandments at Eleven (1994), selected as a "Best of 1994" book by The State South Carolina's principal newspaper.

About Driving to Distraction:

"Gilbert Allen has fun with words. It is a pleasure to watch him hit nail after nail on the head. These are poems of delightful wit and wise laughter. Allen has come into the fullness of his voice and vision, and found the idiom of our time, in these poems of the all-too-human comedy, of humanity."
—Robert Morgan