Alford was raised in
Laramie, Wyoming, and he graduated from high school there in 1972. He earned a master's degree in creative writing at the
University of Wyoming. After leaving Wyoming, he lived in
Ireland and traveled the world. He met Duguid on a bike trip in
Tibet in 1985 and they were married in early 1986. They had two sons, and lived in
Toronto,
Ontario, Canada. The couple separated in 2009, and Alford went on to live in a small village in Northern Thailand. He died on 19 January 2024 in a hospital in southern Thailand. The cause was liver failure eventually brought on by a long-ago liver-fluke infection. ==Books==