R obert Hawks was born in South Bend, Indiana, on December 12, 1961, to his parents Robert Hawks, a mechanic and his wife, Barbara Handley Hawks, a restaurant manager. He attended public schools in South Bend and graduated from Indiana State University with a major in English. While a member of the United States Air Force, he attended the University of Maryland Overseas Program.

Despite his wide travels and residency in numerous places including Europe, according to Hawks, he still considers Indiana to be "home." Currently, he resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. Places where he has lived figure prominently in the settings of many of his novels.

Hawks and his wife Lynn Noswinger have two daughters, the elder of which already shows signs of being interested in writing. Hawks reports she is fascinated with her new computer on which she writes stories "all of three pages...