Tanya Sue Huff was born September 26, 1957 in Halifax, Novia Scotia and grew up in Kingston, Ontario. She made her first sale at age ten – two poems to The Picton Gazette. She joined the Canadian Naval Reserve, where she served as a cook from 1975-79. She attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, graduating in 1982 with a degree in Radio and Television Arts, part of the same graduating