Born Paula Marie Francis in Albuquerque, New Mexico Allen grew up in Cubero, New Mexico, a Spanish-Mexican land grant village bordering the Laguna Pueblo reservation. Of mixed Laguna, Sioux, Scottish, and Lebanese-American descent, Allen always identified most closely with the Laguna, among whom she spent her childhood and upbringing.[4]Her father, E. Lee Francis, owned a local store, the Cubero Trading Company, and later served as the lieutenant governor of New Mexico from 1967 to 1970.[5] Her brother, Lee Francis, was a Laguna Pueblo-Anishinaabe poet, storyteller, and educator.Allen first went to a mission school and graduated in 1957 from a boarding school called the "Sisters of Charity"… located in Albuquerque.[6]Allen received a BA and MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon.[5] She earned a PhD at the University of New Mexico, where she worked as a professor and began research on tribal religions. As a student at the University of New Mexico, she reached out to a poetry professor, Robert Creeley, for poetic advice. He directed her to the work of Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg, and Denise Levertov, who all had strong influences on her work. Later, while a student at University of Oregon she had Ralph Salisbury as a poetry professor, who is of a Cherokee tribe and also had a heavy influence on Paula Gunn Allen.[7][8]Professor Allen taught at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, the College of San Mateo, San Diego State University, San Francisco State University, the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles. She taught at UCLA from 1990 to 1999 as a professor of the English department and the UCLA American Indian Studies Center. Dr. Gunn Allen passed away on May 8, 2008, preceded in death by her two sons, Fuad Allen and Eugene Brown; and is survived by her daughter, Lauralee Brown Hannes (Roland) and younger son, Suleiman Russell Allen (Milissa), and a long list of family, friends, and loved ones.