Mark McNay was born in 1965 and spent his early years in a mining village in central Scotland. He moved to England in his teens and after a failed electrical engineering course and fifteen years of menial jobs, he went to the University of East Anglia (UEA) to study English Literature, financing his degree by working as a part-time window cleaner. He was then accepted to the MA in Creative Writing. He graduated in 2003 with distinction.