Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked as a community worker, poet and publisher, Keith Armstrong is coordinator of the Northern Voices creative writing and community publishing project which specialises in recording the experiences of people in the north east of England.

As well as being organiser of several community arts festivals in the region, and of literary events featuring the likes of Yevtushenko, Douglas Dunn, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Benjamin Zephaniah and Liz Lochhead, he was founder of the Strong Words and Durham Voices community publishing series and of Tyneside Street Press, and has recently compiled and edited books on the Durham Miners' Gala and on the former mining communities of County Durham.