Jay Parini was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania in 1948. In 1970 he graduated from Lafayette College, and he received a doctorate from the University of St. Andrews in 1975. Before becoming a professor at Vermont's Middlebury College in 1982, Parini taught at Dartmouth College. Parini writes poetry, novels, biographies, and criticism, and he has published numerous reviews and essays in major journals and newspapers. He co-founded the New England Review in 1976. A successful film version of The Last Station, his 1990 novel, was released in 2009.