A native of Tempe, Arizona, Patti Bender earned a B.A. with Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude honors in English and history at Trinity University, an M.S. at the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in human motor control and learning at the University of Southern California.

Patti Bender's intimate knowledge of Emilie Loring comes from a lifetime of reading and re-reading her works, contributions from the Loring family, and meticulous research for nearly twenty years in libraries, archives, and personal collections throughout New England. She left a thirty-year college teaching career to complete the author's biography and pursue writing fulltime. Her website, The Emilie Loring Collection (pattibender.com), has become a gathering place for Emilie's lifetime fans.