Ryan G. Van Cleave was the 2007-2008 Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington at The George Washington University. He has taught creative writing and literature at Clemson University, Eckerd College, the Florida State University, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as at prisons, community centers, and urban at-risk youth facilities.

He lives in Sarasota, FL where he works as a freelance writer, editor, consultant, ghostwriter, and script doctor. He serves as Director of C&R Press, a non-profit literary organization based in Chattanooga, TN.

The author (or co-author) of sixteen books, his poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in such publications as The Boston Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard Review, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, National Geographic Adventures, Ploughshares, The Progressive, SCENE Magazine, Scott Stamp Monthly, TriQuarterly, and Writers' Digest.