William Alfred Bauer (May 10, 1932 - June 12, 2010) was an American-Canadian writer. Born in Portland, Maine and raised in Auburn, Bauer was educated at Amherst College, Wesleyan University and the University of North Carolina. He married writer Nancy Bauer in 1956, and they had three children: Ernie, Grace and John. In 1965 he moved to New Brunswick to accept a professorship at the University of New Brunswick, and five years later he completed his PhD dissertation (University of North Carolina) on 18th-century letter-writing.