Patricia Robertson was born in England, near Manchester, and emigrated to Kitamat, B.C. when she was still very young. A City of Orphans is her first collection, though several of these stories have previously appeared in Quarry, Matrix, and the Second Macmillan Anthology.

City of Orphans was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize -- awarded to the best novel or story collection written by a British Columbia writer. Past winners have included Blue Husbands by Don Dickinson (1992) and Bad Imaginings by Caroline Adderson (1994). City of Orphans has been praised for its sensual and haunting stories and for Patricia Robertson's accomplished and sophisticated writing.

Patricia Robertson currently teaches at Yukon College in Whitehorse, Yukon, where she lives with poet and journalist Erling Friis-Baastad.