Teresa Plowright is one of a growing number of Canadian women science-fiction and fantasy writers who use the genre as a means not only of exploring futuristic or otherworldly possibilities but also of addressing larger issues within present social and cultural structures. In an unpublished 21 July 1998 interview she said, "I think many writers are drawn to speculative fiction because it allows you to deal with big themes."

Teresa Irene Plowright was born on 4 November 1952 in South Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, to Kenneth and Ingrid (née Wennberg) Plowright. Her father owned a small printing business, where Plowright worked sometimes during her youth. Her mother worked in the "cash cage" at the Vancouver Sun newspaper when Plowright was young, then later attended to the bookkeeping in the family print shop. Plowright was educated in a Catholic primary school in Burnaby and a Catholic girls' school...