Roddy Lumsden is the author of three previous books of poems Yeah Yeah Yeah (Bloodaxe Books, 1997), The Book of Love (Bloodaxe Books, 2000), and Roddy Lumsden is Dead (Wrecking Ball Press, 2001). He is a freelance writer, specializing in quizzes and word puzzles, and has held several residencies, including ones with the City of Aberdeen, St Andrews Bay Hotel, and in 1999 as "poet-in-residence" to the music industry.

About Mischief Night:

"Sharp, bright and utterly heartbreaking, this collection by one of the most intriguing voices is alternatingly roguish, curmudgeonly, insecure, and tender. The speaker woos and teases, cajoles and repels, withdrawing before beginning again. Though the poems offer no utopian promise, no deliverance, they cut to the quick with the difficult truth of longing, need, and the 'salt of hopelessness'."
—Monique Tschofen, New Delta Review

"There are tremendous narrative poems, mysterious, lingering ones…and unforgettably realistic tales of melancholy sexual encounters…Lumsden is a brilliant vivisector and pathologist of the contemporary relationship…all we can ask for in poetry: contemplation, intelligence, stylistic beauty. Like a spreadsheet of a morality adventure, like perfectly articulated pain…a helpless celebration of Life’s adventures."
—Alan Warner, Scotsman