James L. Randolph was born in Quincy, Florida. My family moved to St .Petersburg, Florida when he was six years old. He attended public school there, entered Eckerd College (formerly Florida Presbyterian College), and graduated in 1972. He attended graduate school at the University of Iowa in the fall of 1972. He studied English. He met Paul Engel, the Director of the International Writer’s Workshop who invited him to workshops and seminars where he met writers and poets from all over the world. They came from England, Greece, Guatemala, Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria, just to name a few. He worked 26 years at the Tampa Bay Times (formerly The St. Petersburg Times). He was a member of the St. Petersburg Police Department and taught Middle and High School students in St. Petersburg.