Alex Niven was born in Northumberland in 1984 and educated at a comprehensive school. He is currently writing a D.Phil on the poet Basil Bunting and the idea of music in modernist literature at St John's College, Oxford. He has published articles on James Joyce and modern poetry, is a regular contributor to Carl Neville's "decade blogs" and has written for other publications including The Guardian, Wave Composition, The North-East Passage, and The Oxonian Review, where he is a senior editor.

In 2006 he co-founded a subsequently moderately hyped indie band, only to quit in 2009 within hours of their first play on The Jo Whiley Show.

Folk Opposition is his first book.