Paula Danziger was born in Washington, D.C. on August 18, 1944, to Samuel and Carolyn Danziger. Her growing up years were spent in various towns, including Arlington, Virginia and Metuchen, New Jersey. In those years, she always knew she wanted to be a writer. She studied for teaching at Montclair State College, where she met John Ciardi and became a frequent baby sitter for his children. He encouraged her in her studies, helped her understand poetry, and gave her a sense of language structure.

After earning a B.A. in English in 1967, she began working as a substitute teacher, which led to full-time teaching at the junior high level. Three years later she returned to school for a master's degree, but her studies were interrupted by a car accident which left her with a whiplash. A couple of days later as her mother was taking...