William Harrison was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1933. He attended Adamson HS, then TCU, Vanderbilt and the University of Iowa. Bill married his high school sweetheart, Merlee Portman, 50 years ago. Three children: Laurie, Sean and Quentin.

     He started writing while at Vanderbilt with friends John Yount and Jim Whitehead. With Whitehead, he founded the Program in Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas. By 2007 students from this graduate program had published more than 400 books at major New York publishing houses and university presses.

     He is the recipient of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been featured in dozens of anthologies including Best American Short Stories and most recently Best American Mystery Stories of 2006 and New Stories from the South of 2006.

     The author lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and has lived for periods in London, Spain, Africa and Malibu.