Josephine Dickinson was born in London. Following a childhood illness, she became profoundly deaf overnight at the age of six. She read Classics at Oxford, taught music and developed a career as a composer under the tutelage of Michael Finnissy, Richard Barret and others. In 1994 she moved to Alston, a remote town high in the Cumbrian Pennines. Her first book, Scarberry Hill (The Rialto), was published in 2001 and was followed by The Voice (Flambard, 2004) and Silence Fell (Houghton Mifflin, 2007).

Josephine Dickinson's work featured in PN Review comprises one contribution of poetry.