Born on 5 August 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Paul S. Lake and Barbara Hull Lake, poet Paul Lake grew up in a close family with two brothers, James and Stephen, and one sister, Melody. Remaining in his home state of Maryland, Lake, between 1969 and 1971, attended Harford Community College. Before graduating in 1971, he moved to California. Enchanted by the West, Lake next traveled to Portland, Oregon, where, also in 1971, he married artist Tina Selanders, whom he had met earlier in Maryland. Eventually, the couple returned to Maryland. There, Lake worked as a pipeline construction inspector as he continued part-time college work toward completion of his degree. Ultimately, Lake graduated in 1975 from Towson State College (now Towson University) with a degree in English. He then taught eighth-and ninth-grade English for two years at an inner-city junior high school in the public school system of Baltimore.

Already publishing his poetry in many...