Early life Porter lived in
Albuquerque,
New Mexico until halfway through kindergarten. Her father, who worked for an insurance company, was transferred, and then the family moved to
Dallas, Texas. When Porter was 12 years old, her father was transferred to
Monroe, Louisiana, where she attended Robert E. Lee Junior High. She remembers her school as being very strict; she had to address all her elders as "Yes, Ma'am, No, Ma'am, Yes, Sir, No, Sir." She was first introduced to racism at her school when everyone treated the African American staff with no respect by calling them by their first names and playing around with them. She recalls becoming very interested in world politics and the civil rights movement by watching the evening news every day. Porter was first introduced to poetry while flipping through the back of her English language arts book in class. She picked up books from the library, books of poetry and pieces that usually were short, the length she felt she could read. She was also introduced to poems by
Robert Frost, particularly "Desert Places". She believed she was always destined to be an author, and remembers always wanting to play the game "Authors" instead of "Scrabble" as a child.
Later life Porter finished her undergraduate degree at
Southern Methodist University. She holds an MFA in poetry writing from the
University of Montana. When she first entered university, she was very interested in languages. She studied the German language for a few years and was interested in becoming fluent in some other languages and becoming a translator. Porter was 19 years old when she took her first writing course with John Skoyles. Other teachers were Jack Myers, Richard Hugo, and later
Lorna Crozier and
Patrick Lane. Soon after earning her MFA, she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference in Vermont. Porter met her husband in a bell choir. She and Rob traveled a lot together before having children; they lived in
Sunspot, New Mexico, and then moved to
Seattle before moving to
Ulm, Montana to be closer to Rob's family, who were in
Calgary. Porter has been a professor at the
University of Victoria as a sessional instructor. For generations, Rob's family has gone to
Saskatchewan every summer to work on the farm. == Analysis ==