Will Aitken was born in Indiana and came to Canada to attend McGill University in 1972. He lives in Montreal, where he co-founded the city's first gay and lesbian bookstore, Librairie L'Androgyne, in 1974. He has worked as a writer and broadcaster for the CBC, the BBC, and National Public Radio in the U.S., and as a journalist for The Globe and Mail and the National Post, among other publications.