William Neal Harrison, novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter, was born on October 29, 1933, in Dallas, Texas. He received a B.A. in 1955 from Texas Christian University and an M.A. in 1959 from Vanderbilt University. As both an undergraduate and graduate student, Harrison had some of his poetry and essays published in student publications. At Vanderbilt, Harrison became involved in theatre as an actor, director, and playwright, and he also received awards for his short stories. Harrison spent a year in the University of Iowa's Creative Writing Program before teaching for two years at Texas College of Arts and Industries in Kingsville, Texas. He accepted a faculty position in the English Department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1964; the following year Harrison established the University of Arkansas's Creative Writing Program, which, within a period of a few years, achieved national recognition.

Harrison's best-known works are The Theologian, In a Wild Sanctuary, Rollerball Murder and Other Stories, Rollerball (screenplay), Africana, Savannah Blue, and Burton and Speke. He has received several awards and honors, including the Columbia School of Journalism Prize in Fiction (1971), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1974), a National Endowment for the Arts Grant (1977), and the Christopher Award for Television (1979).