Berkley Wendell Semple was born in Guyana. He has published four collections of poetry: Lamplight Teller, which was awarded the 2004 Guyana Prize for Poetry; The Solo Flyer; The Central Station; and Flight and Other Poems, which won the 2023 Guyana Prize for Literature. He has also edited a book of student poems. His poetry and fiction have appeared in Callaloo, The Hampden-Sydney Review, The Caribbean Writer (for which he received a Daily News Prize for Poetry), and many other publications. A veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, Semple holds an M.A. and an M.L.S. from Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), as well as an M.Phil, from Long Island University (LIU), where he is currently a Ph.D. candidate. From 2010 to 2022, he wrote audiobook reviews for Sound Commentary Journal. He serves on the editorial board of The Caribbean Writer and is an editor and book reviewer for Caribbean Voice. Semple is a Young Adult librarian and currently works for the Queens Public Library system in New York City.