Born in Buckfield, a rural town in the state of Maine, Ben Lyle Bedard grew up in the country. He studied at the University of Maine at Farmington. After graduating from college, he eventually moved across the country to Oregon and then California, where he studied for his Master’s Degree at Mills College, in Oakland. He moved to Buffalo for his PhD. In Buffalo he met his future wife, a Fulbright scholar from Chile. Bedard followed her back to Chile where they married. Now they live in La Serena, Chile, where Ben teaches English and writes novels in many genres.