Charles Baxter was born in Minneapolis and graduated from Macalester College, in Saint Paul. After completing graduate work in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he taught for several years at Wayne State University in Detroit. In 1989, he moved to the Department of English at the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor and its MFA program. He now teaches at the University of Minnesota.

Baxter is the author of 5 novels, 5 collections of short stories, 3 collections of poems, 2 collections of essays on fiction and is the editor of other works. More detailed information about each of Baxter's books can be found in the published works section.