Romulus Linney was born in Philadelphia in 1931. He is the author of three novels, thirteen plays and twenty-two short plays that have been produced in the U.S. and in Europe. He received a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as Guggenheim, Rockefeller and National Foundation for the Arts grants, an Obie award, a Mishima Prize for fiction and the Award for Literature from the American Academy and Institute for Arts and Letters . He received an honorary doctorates from Oberlin in 1994, from Appalachian State University in 1995, and from Wake Forest University in 1998. He is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild , Inc., Ensemble Studio Theatre , the Fellowship of Southern Writers , National Theatre Conference , College of Fellows of the American Theatre , American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Yaddo. Linney has been chair of the M.F.A. Playwriting program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and Professor of Playwriting in the Actors Studio M.F.A. Program at The New School in New York.

He is the father of actress Laura Linney.