Art Ranney was born in Cincinnati and was raised in Northern Kentucky. Prior to landing in academe, he worked a variety of jobs including retail sales, X-ray technician, auto mechanic, millwright, petroleum research technician, motorcycle courier, newspaper reporter, editor, photographer and copy editor. He has won awards from the Associated Press for his reporting and continues to write fiction and non-fiction works, including a non-fiction piece about motorcycling published in a national magazine in January 2000.

Ranney’s education includes: a Ph.D. in communication, with an emphasis on rhetorical analysis of video, from Ohio State University; an M.A. in journalism, with emphases in English and film studies, also from Ohio State University; and a B.A. in English and comparative literature, with a writing emphasis, from the University of Cincinnati.

He owns three vintage motorcycles, but usually rides his late-model sport bike or motocrosser. He has written 2.5 novels; excerpts have been published in local literary magazines, but the works as a whole remain unpublished. He is a singer-songwriter and member of the local band Fallen Roadies. The band has released three albums on compact disc. He lives in a former schoolhouse with his wife, Mary Rose Williams. Events in their home life are largely dictated by six cats, two dogs and a turtle.