Isobel Dixon was born in Mthatha and grew up in Graaff-Reinet. She studied in Edinburgh and now works in London, returning frequently to her family home in the Karoo. She was awarded the Olive Schreiner Prize for her debut, Weather Eye, and followed this with A Fold in the Map and The Tempest Prognosticator, which J.M. Coetzee described as ‘a virtuoso collection’. Bearings was published by Nine Arches in the UK and Modjaji Books in 2016. In the same year Mariscat in Edinburgh published The Leonids, a poetry pamphlet about her mother.

She often collaborates with artists and composers and co-authored and performed in The Debris Field, about the sinking of RMS Titanic. Her work is recorded for the Poetry Archive.