Pamela Duncan was born in Asheville in 1961 and raised in Black Mountain, Swannanoa, and Shelby, North Carolina. She holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a M.A. in English/creative writing from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. She lives in Graham, North Carolina, where her good neighbors watch out for her, and is at work on a second novel.