Victor W. Pearn was born in 1950 and was raised in Jacksonville, Illinois. He received his Bachelor’s at University of Illinois, Springfield. He would continue his education at the University of Colorado, where he would receive his Masters in English Literature. He currently resides in Boulder, Colorado.

His poems encapsulate visions of the American West, reflections on living, and positive relationships that he has had. He first began writing poems in 1971 at 21 years of age, this occurring Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. His poetry was first published in 1976; the most recent published work at UIS is from 2020. His poems had been published over 200 times in an assortment of works, including: Caribbean Writer, Chiron Review, Long Islander, Midwest Quarterly, Mind Matters Review, Negative Capability, Sulphur River Literary Review, The Seventh Quarry, and Whole Notes. He has authored over 12 books, five being poetry books: American Western Song (2000), Devil Dogs and Jarheads (2003), Apricot Harvest (2012), Cattails and Sagebrush (2013), and American Western Love Song (2015).

Since 2005, Pearn has been printing books; after 14 years, his company, Pearn and Associates, Inc, has published 39 titles. His company has two imprints: Indian Paintbrush Poets and Burning Daylight. Victor Pearn has been employed at Jining University in China teaching English from 2009-2010, serving as a Radio Repairman in the Marines in the 1970’s, and a central career of “large college in Denver for a while.” His awards and accolades include: the 1984 Colorado University poetry contest for his poem “One Year of Grace;” the 1984 Poetry Forum’s contest for his master’s thesis Where the River Flows, the 1998 Poetry Forum’s chapbook contest for Dancing Bears, the Shandong Province Prize for excellent thesis at the Symposium on Foreign Language Teaching for his paper on “Teaching English Creatively,” winning a Christmas writing contest for his poem “Sleigh Ride in Illinois;” nominated for the Colorado state Poet Laureate, and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his publication, Swans Pausing.