Thomas Dukes was born in Gainesville, Florida, and grew up in Aiken, South Carolina. He received his BA and MA in English (both with Creative Writing emphasis) from The University of Texas in El Paso and received his Ph.D. in modern literature from Purdue University. He was an administrator and professor at The University of Akron before retirement and continues to teach part-time there. He is the author of a prize-winning poetry collection, Baptist Confidential, a memoir, Sugar Blood Jesus, as well as of poems, short fiction, journalism, creative non-fiction, and scholarship. He lives in northeast Ohio and is married and owned by four cats and a dog, all rescues, though who rescued whom could be up for debate.