Robert Michael Congemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised there and on Long Island. He has long been attracted to ideas describing life as absurdest and indeterminate, but has also held out for the possibility that these ideas are not necessarily correct.

Further, he is interested in the attempts of people to bring meaning and beauty into their lives, as well as resistance to what they feel is an unacceptable fate. Congemi teaches at SUNY/ Empire State College.