Sapphire (pen name of Ramona Lofton) was one of four children born in an army family in California. During her early twenties, Sapphire lived in San Francisco before moving to new York City in 1976, where she currently lives and works. In New York she set up NAPS, the first known black lesbian performing arts group in the US.

In 1990 she decided to concentrate on her writing and later completed an MFA in the writing programme at Brooklin College. Sapphire's poetry explores themes of sexual abuse and healing and issues of racism and denial at the heart of American dream.