Ola Larsmo was born in 1957 in Sundbyberg and has lived in Västervik for ten years. He studied at Uppsala University, mainly in North Germanic languages, literature, theology and history.

Larsmo was editor of BLM from 1984 to 1990, and now works as writer and freelance critic, mainly for Dagens Nyheter. He was a member of the board at Författarförbundet ("Authors association") until May 2003. As of 2011, he has been living in Uppsala.

In 2008 he was awarded the Bjørnson Prize.