Brenda Hillman出生于亚利桑那州图森，并出席了Pomona学院，在那里她获得了学士学位，其次是Iowa大学，在那里获得了MFA。She has been a member of the faculty at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California, since 1984. She once told Contemporary Authors: "I am interested in the presence of spirit in matter and in how to have joy in a divided universe—that's what my poetry is mainly about. My tools are irony, the image, the broken narrative, and an intensely personal voice."