After growing up on the East End of Long Island in Amagansett, Shelby Raebeck spent time studying, playing basketball (high school, college, and a lot of pick-up), teaching, coaching, and writing in such places as New York City, Boston, Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, Utah, and California.

In 2000, he returned to the East End with his wife, Page, and their two children, Talia and Sebastian, where he taught English and published the critically acclaimed Louse Point: Stories from the East End, which received a starred review from Kirkus, as well as the two acclaimed novels, Amagansett '84 and East Hampton Blue. Children now grown, he currently resides in Salt Lake City where he is at work on two children's books and a memoir, Playbook for Lost Souls.