David Ray was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. In 1970 he married, and he and his wife Judy have four children. He was educated at the University of Chicago, receiving his B.A. in 1952 and his M.A. in 1957. Besides being the author of six volumes of poetry, Ray is a teacher, editor, and writer of fiction and literary criticism. He has taught English at Wright Junior College in Chicago (1957-1958), Northern Illinois University (1958-1960), Cornell University (1960-1964), Reed College (1964-1966), and Bowling Green State University (1971). Since 1971 Ray has been on the faculty at the University of Missouri, where, in addition to teaching, he edits the literary quarterly New Letters. He has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Iowa (1969-1970) and Syracuse University (1978-1979), and he has given readings on numerous college campuses, at the Poetry Center in New York, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D...