Benjamin Taylor (1952 - ) is an American writer. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Taylor received his bachelor of arts from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from Columbia University.  He is a founding member of the Graduate Writing Program faculty of The New School in New York City, and has also taught at Washington University in St. Louis, the Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y, Bennington College and Columbia University. He has served as Secretary of the Board of Trustees of PEN American Center, has been a fellow of the MacDowell Colony and was awarded the Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger Residency at Yaddo. A Trustee of the Edward F. Albee Foundation, Inc., he is also a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University and a Guggenheim Fellow for 2012 - 2013.

Taylor's debut novel, Tales Out of School (1995) won the 1996 Harold J. Ribalow. Taylor's second novel, The Book of Getting Even (2008) was one of three 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Award winners, a 2008 Los Angeles Times Favorite Book of the Year, and a Ferro-Grumley Prize Finalist. In addition to his fiction, Taylor has published a book-length essay titled Into the Open: Reflections on Genius and Modernity (1995). He has also edited Saul Bellow: Letters (2010), and produced a travel memoir, Naples Declared: A Walk Around the Bay (2012). Taylor’s work has appeared in a number of publications including Harper's, Esquire, Bookforum, BOMB, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, The Georgia Review, Raritan Quarterly Review, Threepenny Review, Salmagundi, Provincetown Arts and The Reading Room.