William Allen, who also went by Bill, was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. He briefly attended Northern Texas University, but graduated with a bachelor’s degree from California State University at Long Beach with a major in English and a minor in journalism. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Iowa. Allen was hired to be an associate professor of English at the Ohio State University in 1972. He founded The Ohio Journal in 1973, a literary magazine available to Ohio State and the Columbus area, which was later renamed The Journal. Allen also published several books, including Starkweather, a non-fiction exploration of mass murderer Charles Starkweather; a novel called To Tojo From Billy-Bob Jones; and The Fire in the Birdbath and Other Disturbances, a collection of essays that were previously published in magazines. Allen wrote about growing up in rural Texas and true crime stories. He was the recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Allen became an emeritus professor at Ohio State in 1995.