Born in Montreal in 1946, Max is the eldest son of painter Betty Sutherland (aka Boschka) and poet Irving Layton. He earned an MA in Eng. Lit. from the University of Toronto and then worked as a high school English teacher until retirement. A published novelist and short story writer, Max went legally blind more than a decade ago and during that difficult period recorded his first CD, Heartbeat Of Time. His eyesight eventually restored thanks to the miracle of modern science, Max felt he had been given a second chance. That is why the intervening years have seen the release of three more CDs of Max's original songs, while Guernica Editions has since published three books of Max's poems, When The Rapture Comes, (2012), In The Garden Of I Am, (2015), and Like (2018).