Ralph Fletcher grew up in Marshfield, Massachusetts. He is the oldest of nine children. Each of his parents was one of eight children. He received his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College in 1975 and his M.F.A degree in writing from Columbia University in 1983. In college he participated in foreign study programs in Tonga in the South Pacific and Sierra Leone, South Africa. After receiving his masters degree, Ralph worked in New York City classrooms as part of the Teacher College writing project. Fletcher currently lives in Lee, New Hampshire. He is married to JoAnn Portalupi with whom he has collaborated on several professional educator books. Together they have four sons.

His young adult novel Uncle Daddy won a Christopher Medal in the Books for Young People, ages 10—12 category in 2002. Fig Pudding, a young adult chapter book by Fletcher, was recommended as one of the ten best books of 1995 by the American Library Association. Fletcher's poetry book I Am Wings was chosen by School Library Journal as one of their best books of 1994.

Children's picture books

• Twilight Comes Twice - illustrated by Kate Kiesler (1997)
• Grandpa Never Lies - illustrated by Harvey Stevenson (2000)
• The Circus Surprise - illustrated by Vladimir Vagin (2001)
• Hello, Harvest Moon - illustrated by Kate Kiesler (2003)
• The Sandman - illustrated by Richard Cowdrey (2008)

Poetry books

• The Magic Nest (1980)
• Water Planet (1991)
• I Am Wings (1994)
• Ordinary Things (1997)
• Buried Alive (1998)
• Room Enough for Love (1998) - Compilation of I Am Wings and Buried Alive
• Relatively Speaking (1999)
• Have You Been to the Beach Lately? (2001)
• A Writing Kind of Day (2005)
• Moving Day (2007)

Memoir

• When I Was a Kid (2005)

Professional educator books

• Walking Trees (1991)
• What a Writer Needs (1993)
• Breathing In, Breathing Out (1996)
• Teaching Writing K-8 (with JoAnn Portalupi) (1998)
• Nonfiction Craft Lessons (with JoAnn Portalupi) (2001)
• Writing Workshop (with JoAnn Portalupi) (2001)
• Teaching the Qualities of Writing with JoAnn Portalupi (2004)
• Lessons for the Writer's Notebook with JoAnn Portalupi (2005)
• Reclaiming Their Voices (2006)
• Pyrotechnics on the Page (2010)

Books on writing for children

• A Writer's Notebook (1996)
• Live Writing (1999)
• How Writers Work (2000)
• Poetry Matters (2002)
• How to Write Your Life Story (2007)
• Author at Work (2007)