Nancy Kress was born in Buffalo, New York. She went to college at State University of New York at Plattsburgh, earning a degree in elementary education, which she put to use for the next four years teaching the fourth grade.

It was while Nancy was pregnant with her son that she started writing fiction. She had never planned on becoming a writer, but staying at home full-time with infants left her time to experiment. In 1990 she went full-time as an SF writer. The first thing she wrote in this new status was the novella version of “Beggars in Spain.”

Although she began by writing fantasy, Nancy currently writes science fiction, often about genetic engineering. She teaches regularly at summer conferences such as Clarion West and Taos Toolbox. For sixteen years, she was the “Fiction” columnist for WRITER’S DIGEST magazine, and has written three books about writing.