Warren Woessner grew up in a farm town in southern New Jersey. After studying creative writing with James McConkey and A. R. Ammons at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, he moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 1966, where he co-founded Abraxas Magazine and WORT-FM. He received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

. Woessner's father also received a Ph.D. from Madison. Woessner lived in New York City in the early 1980s; he is today an avid birder. His poetry has been widely published and anthologized. Woessner lives in Minneapolis, where he works as a biotechnology patent attorney.