Sheila Finch was born in London, UK, 29 October 1935. She attended Bishop Otter College (now Chichester University) from 1954-56, then taught for a year (1956-1957) in a primary school in Hackney, London. Following her marriage to Clare Grill Rayner in 1957 (divorced 1980), she emigrated to the US and completed her BA in English Literature at Indiana University in 1959, followed by an MA in linguistics and medieval history in 1962. Her first daughter April Virginia was born 1960 in Indiana. Two more daughters were born when the family relocated to California in 1962, Dawn Helen (1962) and Laurel Elizabeth (1969). From 1963-1967, when the family lived in San Luis Obsipo, she taught part-time at Cuesta College and began publishing poetry. The family moved to Long Beach, California in 1967. Sheila  taught creative writing and science fiction at El Camino College,  from 1970- 2005. The family relocated for two years to Munich, Germany in the 1970s, where Sheila studied German and taught English as a second language.