Robert Milks grew up in an Air Force family and so moved around a lot in his childhood, living in five continental states, Alaska when it was still a territory, Germany, and Canada. He graduated from Davidson College with a BA in English and from NC State University with an MA in English, then spent the next forty-five years working in writing and editing in journalism, organizational communication, and publishing, including a number of years as a freelancer. He's lived in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina for the past half-century and lives now in Cary. He's been married for going on fifty years and has two adult children and three grandchildren. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA).