Patrick Creevy grew up on the South Side of Chicago, moving to the northern suburbs at age fourteen. He graduated from Holy Cross College in 1970, received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Harvard University in 1975, and has taught at Mississippi State University since 1976. For the last several years he has divided his time between his farm in Mississippi and his home in Wilmette, Illinois. He has five children and nine grandchildren and has been married to his wife, Susie, for forty-nine years.