Scott Spencer was born September 1, 1945, in Washington, D.C. He is an American author. Endless Love and A Ship Made of Paper have both been nominated for the National Book Award. He has taught at Columbia University, the University of Iowa, Williams College, and Bard College's Bard Prison Initiative. Spencer is an alumnus of Roosevelt University. In 2004, he was the recipient of a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship. For the past twenty years, he has lived in a small town in upstate New York.