A novelist and poet, Gregson was born in 1953 in Manchester, England. He pursued his education at Oxford University and later attained a PhD from the University of Hull. Acknowledged for his literary prowess, Gregson received the prestigious Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 1981. His inaugural poetry compilation, "Call Centre Love Song," released by Salt in 2006, garnered acclaim, even securing a nomination for the Forward Prize in the same year.

Primarily residing in north Wales, Gregson held the esteemed position of Professor of English literature and creative writing at Bangor University until his retirement in 2015. Gregson's most recent work includes his two gripping novels, "Not Tonight Neil" (2011) and "The Crocodile Princess" (2015), both issued by Cinnamon Press. Throughout his career, he has authored numerous works; his second poetry anthology, "How We Met," was published by Salt in 2008 and included the celebrated poem "Squawks and Speech," which was featured as The Guardian's Poem of the Week in July 2014. 

In 2015, Gregson found himself in contention for the esteemed position of Professor of Poetry. However, he later encouraged his supporters to endorse Simon Armitage, who ultimately secured the appointment in June 2015. Interestingly, Gregson had previously penned an extensive introduction to Armitage's work, tailored for educational purposes, which provided insightful analyses of his significant poems.

Furthermore, Peter Jingcheng Xu, a poet, translator, and scholar, undertook the translation of sixteen of Gregson's poems into Chinese. Completing his PhD at Bangor University's School of English Literature in 2018, Xu published the translated works alongside his Chinese critique, titled "Ian Gregson: A Contemporary British Postmodernist Eco-Poet of Dramatic Monologue," in installments in the esteemed journal The World of English from May to September of the same year.