Paula Saunders grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota. She danced as an apprentice with the Harkness Ballet in New York City, under David Howard. She is a graduate of Barnard College, as well as the Syracuse creative writing program, and was awarded a post-graduate Albert Schweitzer Fellowship in the Humanities at the State University of New York at Albany under then-Schweitzer Chair, Toni Morrison. She lives in California with her husband. They have two grown daughters.