David Sheppard holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State and a Master's in Astronautical Engineering from Stanford University. He also studied creative writing and American Literature at the University of Colorado. His poetry has appeared in The Paris Review and in England (The 1987 Arvon International Poetry Competition Anthology judged by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney). While living in Colorado he was a member of the Rocky Mountain Writers Guild for seven years, participated in its Live Poets Society and Advanced Novel Workshop, and chaired its Literary Society. He founded a novel critique group that lasted ten years. He has attended the Aspen Writers Conference in Colorado and the Sierra Writing Camp in California. Occasionally he teaches Novel Writing and Greek Mythology at New Mexico State University at Carlsbad in the Continuing Education Department. He has traveled throughout western Europe and is an amateur photographer and astronomer.

He grew up in California and has lived in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, and currently resides in Chowchilla, California. He has worked as a farmer, bank teller, electronics technician, combat crew member on ICBM's, aerospace engineer, library assistant, and has taught astronomy at NMSU-Carlsbad. His thirty-year aerospace career included work on the Viking Project which landed the first robots on Mars, and many Space Shuttle related projects. On the international Shuttle Earth-Imaging Radar (SIR-C), he was the liaison between NASA and the European Space Agency, working primarily with German and Italian aerospace companies. For three years, he was one of JPL/NASA's Solar System Ambassadors. He is a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He served eight years in the US Air Force during the Vietnam era, both in the enlisted ranks and as an officer. His greatest love is ancient Greek mythology and religion. He is single and has two grown kids.