Pamela Banting was born in Birch River, Manitoba in 1955. She obtained a B.A. and Cert. Ed. from the University of Manitoba in 1976 and 1977 respectively. She then taught secondary school in Gimli, Manitoba for two years before obtaining a M.A. from the University of Manitoba in 1986. While at the University of Manitoba, she organized the Dorothy Livesay archives and co-wrote the finding aid, The Dorothy Livesay Papers. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 1990. Pamela Banting taught English at the University of Western Ontario from 1990 to 1994. She then became an Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta until 1999. She became a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Calgary in 1996, where she was teaching English literature and cultural studies. In 2007 she was Assistant Professor in the University of Calgary's Department of English. She has published two poetry chapbooks, an anthology of contemporary western-Canadian writing, a book of literary theory, and numerous journal and magazine articles.