Esmé Claire Keith was born in Toronto in 1964. Her librarian mother supervised weekly library visits while her father read exclusively from J.B. Priestley's list of great novels. Her older sister began to study Latin at the age of ten. A natural contrarian, Esmé gave herself to Mad Magazine, Star Trek (the original series), and the holy trinity of glam, disco, and punk. At university she finally investigated the canon and she saw that it was good. She has divided her attention ever since between high culture and pop. She currently lives in Winnipeg, where she has good access to both.