Gillian Allnutt was born on 15 January 1949 in London, but spent much of her childhood in Newcastle upon Tyne. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge and the University of Sussex.

Since 1973 she has taught English and creative writing in London and Newcastle upon Tyne, and has also worked as a performer, publisher, journalist and freelance editor. She was a collective member of Sheba Feminist Publishers (1981-83), and from 1983 to 1988 was poetry editor at City Limits magazine.

Gillian Allnutt has published six major poetry collections: Spitting the Pips Out (1981); Beginning the Avocado (1987); Blackthorn (1994); Nantucket and the Angel (1997); Lintel (2001); and Sojourner (2004). Nantucket and the Angel and Lintel were both shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. She is also the co-editor of The New British Poetry, 1968-1988 (1988) and is the author of Berthing: A Poetry Workbook (1991).

In 2001/02 and 2002/03 she was a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow, partly at Newcastle University. Gillian has been teaching creative writing since 1983 and is currently teaching on Newcastle University's Poetry Masterclasses short course. She lives in Esh Winning, County Durham.