Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Pamela Porter earned a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, in 1978, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from University of Montana, Missoula, MT, in 1980, where she studied under Richard Hugo. Pamela immigrated to Canada in 1994, where she joined workshops with Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier. Patrick Lane called her "a poet to be grateful for." Her work has earned many accolades, including the inaugural Gwendolyn MacEwan Poetry Prize, the Malahat Review's 50th Anniversary Poetry Prize, the Our Times Poetry Award for political poetry, the FreeFall Magazine Poetry Award, the Prism International Grand Prize in Poetry, the Vallum Magazine Poem of the Year Award, as well as the Raymond Souster and Pat Lowther Award shortlists. Her novel in verse, The Crazy Man, won the Governor General's Award, the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award, the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and a multitude of other prizes. Both The Crazy Man and her later novel in verse, I'll Be Watching, are required reading in schools and colleges across Canada and the U.S. Pamela lives on a farm near Sidney, B.C., with a menagerie of rescued horses, dogs and cats.