Ralph Culver was born in Illinois, raised in Pittsburgh, and for many years has lived in Vermont. He studied writing and literature at Goddard College (Plainfield, Vermont), the New School (New York City), and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College (Swannanoa, North Carolina), and filmmaking at the University of Vermont. His poetry, fiction, and criticism have appeared in many publications and several anthologies, and he is a past grantee in poetry of the Vermont Arts Council among other awards and citations. His poetry collection Both Distances won the 2012 Anabiosis Press Chapbook Prize, and was followed in 2018 by the highly praised So Be It (WolfGang Press). A Passable Man is his first full-length collection.