Philip Gross was born in 1952 in Britain, at Delabole, in north Cornwall, near the sea. He was the only child of Juhan Karl Gross, an Estonian wartime refugee, and Jessie, the daughter of the local village school-master. He grew up and was educated in Plymouth. In junior school he began writing stories, and when in his teens he began writing poetry. He went on to study at Sussex University, where he took his B.A. in English. He worked for a correspondence college and in several libraries (he has a diploma in librarianship). Since the early 80s he has worked as a freelance writer and writing educator, subsequently holding posts in several universities.

In the 1980s he and his first wife, Helen, had a son and a daughter. While living in Bristol he began travelling around schools in Britain as a workshop leader and later he joined Bath Spa University to teach Creative Studies. In 2000 he married his second wife, Zélie. In 2004 he was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan (now the University of South Wales), a position he still holds. In 2007 he received his D. Litt. from the university. He is a Quaker (member of the Society of Friends).

He won the T.S. Eliot Prize for his collection of poems, The Water Table (2009),[1] a Gregory Award (1981) and the National Poetry Competition (1982).

He has been judge for many poetry competitions - in 2014 judging the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, the Manchester Writing for Children Prize 2014, the Magma Poetry Competition and the Medicine Unboxed Creative Prize. In the summer of 2015 he was writer in residence at the Poetry on the Move international festival at the University of Canberra.