Born and raised in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, Vincent Wyckoff attended the University of Minnesota before enlisting in the U.S. Army. While working for the U.S. Postal Service, he wrote Beware of Cat, a book that celebrates the lives of people on his route. For a short time he lived on the North Shore of Lake Superior, from which he developed the background for Black Otter Bay, his first work of fiction. Nightwatchers is the sequel, and Refuge From the Sea is the third installment. His stories have been published in various periodicals as well as the anthology, Home. Wyckoff and his wife, Sybil, live in Minneapolis and have three children and six grandchildren.