Ralph Black

Ralph Black was born in Baltimore, MD, raised in Bethesda, dropped out of Walt Whitman High School, and somehow made it to college (B.A. from the University of Oregon; M.A. and PhD from NYU). He's taught in the English Departments of Davidson College and Wake Forest University (the Carolina Years), and currently teaches at the College of Brockport, the SUNY campus just west of Rochester, NY.

Over the years, Ralph Black has paid his rent by delivering newspapers (including the Washington Post to Spiro Agnew, post-impeachment!), washing dishes and busing tables, painting houses, lawn mowing and landscaping, fighting wildfires, rangering around the Sawtooth Mtns. in Idaho, selling books, and teaching. He and his wife, Susan, have two daughters and a dog. They live in Rochester, NY.