Monique Layton was educated in Morocco, France, England, and Canada.  At university, she studied Romance Studies, Comparative Literature, and Cultural Anthropology.  After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia (1978), she worked at the Universities Council of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.

While at SFU, she conducted research projects in Cuba and the Seychelles.  She has five children, a large number of grand children, and is married to John, who has somehow accepted to cohabit with her may absorbing "projects" (from translating Levi-Strauss to two years of non-stop quilting).

"The reader of Monique Layton's ethnography is invited into the oral tradition of prostitute drug addicts, is encouraged to think about them differently and to learn about their verbal creativity." - Dr. Elvi Whittaker