Allen Stein was born in the Bronx and has taught American Literature at North Carolina State University since 1968. His numerous essays on American writers have appeared in such journals as American Literature, American Literary Realism, and Modern Language Quarterly. He has also published books on the short fiction of Kate Chopin and on the portrayal of marriage in the works of American Literary Realists. His poems and stories have appeared in The Hudson Review, Poet Lore, Salmagundi, Willow Springs, among other literary magazines, and his first poetry collection, Your Funeral is Very Important to Us, appeared in 2019.