Edward W. (Winslow) Bryant, Jr. was born on August 27, 1945, in White Plains, New York, but was raised in Wyoming, where he received his MA in English (University of Wyoming, 1968). He attended the famed Clarion Writer's Workshop in 1968, and in 1972 moved to Denver, Colorado, where he founded the Northern Colorado Writer's Workshop, and where he spent the remainder of his life. The NCWW counted among its alumni such acclaimed authors as Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem, Wil McCarthy, Bruce Holland Rogers, Dan Simmons, and Connie Willis. Bryant also helped found and run many other workshops and classes as well, including the Colorado Springs Writers Workshop.

Bryant was an accomplished SF writer, working primarily in short fiction. His first published stories, released in early 1970, were “They Come Only in Dreams” and “Sending the Very Best”. Over the succeeding decades he wrote more than 100 short stories, notably including the Nebula Award-nominated works "Shark" (1973), "Particle Theory" (1977), "The Hibakusha Gallery" (1977), "Strata" (1980), and "The Thermals of August" (1981). He won the Nebula Award for "Stone" (1978) and "gIANTS" (1979), both of which were also Hugo Award finalists. Other stories of note include World Fantasy- and Stoker Award finalist “A Sad Last Love at the Diner of the Damned” (1989), Stoker nominee “The Loneliest Number” (1990), and Sturgeon Memorial Award nominee “The Fire that Scours” (1994). Many of Bryant's stories were published in collections including Among the Dead and Other Events Leading up to the Apocalypse (1973), Cinnabar (1976), a collection of linked far-future stories, Wyoming Sun (1980), Particle Theory (1981), Neon Twilight (1990), Darker Passions (1991), The Baku: Tales of the Nuclear Age (2001), Trilobyte (2014), and Predators and Other Stories (2014).

In 1975 Bryant published his single novel Phoenix Without Ashes, co-written with Harlan Ellison. He also wrote several chapbooks between 1990-1993, and contributed stories to his friend George R.R. Martin's "Wild Cards" universe in the anthologies Wild Cards (1987), Jokers Wild (1987), Aces Abroad (1988), Down and Dirty (1988), and Dealer's Choice (1992).

Bryant was an active critic during his career, as well as a Toastmaster and/or Chair for various important genre conventions, including Devention II, the World Fantasy Convention, ArmadilloCon, and the World Horror Convention. In 1996, the International Horror Guild presented Bryant with its Living Legends Award.

Edward Bryant died at his home in Denver on February 10, 2017.