He graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. cum laude in 1962, Harvard Law School with a LLB in 1965, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa with a M.F.A. in 1968.He currently lives with his wife, artist Rosamond Casey, and their two daughters in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he is Professor of English Literature at the University of Virginia. He judged the Peter Taylor Prize in 2003.

His work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Harpers, Esquire, Ploughshares, and Shenandoah.

His papers are held at University of Virginia library.

Casey has two adult daughters from his first marriage to novelist Jane Barnes: Nell Casey and Maud Casey. Maud Casey is a published author in her own right, with two well-reviewed novels and a collection of short stories to her credit. Nell Casey is the editor of the best-selling essay collection "Unholy Ghost" on depression and creativity, including essays by herself and her sister, and editor of a second essay collection "An Uncertain Inheritance" by contributors caring for family through illness and death.