Soraya Erian was born in Cairo, Egypt.  She received an Honours B.A. from the University of Cairo and was appointed there as lecturer.  She taught at the University for two years before she received a Canada Council scholarship to pursue her graduate studies in English in Canada.  She received an M.A. from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario.

She lived in Toronto for six years and taught at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute for two of them.  She painted in water colours and participated in group exhibitions in the city.  When she moved to Hamilton, she tutored at McMaster University for a year, and later was appointed on the faculty of the Language Studies Department, Mohawk College, where she taught until she took early retirement.

Apart from teaching Literature, Language, Communications and Creative Writing at Mohawk College, Soraya pursued her art in the form of  charcoal, ink drawings, chalk and mixed media.  Her seven published poetry books include her own drawings/paintings.  The drawings are a medium in their own right; they interact with the poems, but they do not illustrate the writing.  Her seven books are: Earth Sphere, The Death of Meleika Erian, The World is Everything I Am, I've Been a Fish Before, Ariadne's Thread, In The Eye Of The Sun and Were You My Ariel.

Soraya has published short stories in Toronto anthologies, and her poems were anthologized in Toronto and in Hamilton.  She has won numerous Cross-Canada Best Poem Awards for poetry sponsored by the Writers' Quarterly, and from Triton College, USA, from Canadian Authors' Association, TOP 40, Hamilton, the Hamilton Arts Council, and an award for an article published in Canadian VOICES and in The Ottawa Citizen.  She has contributed a page long commentary to Canadian VOICES in Hamilton for one year and was invited to be a member of The Hamilton Spectator Citizen Editorial Board for two-&-a-half years.

Her first published novel is The Jasmine Garden, with four of the author's paintings of the major characters. This novel is being translated into Arabic in Cairo, Egypt. Her second novel is Mystic Loon, with four of the author's drawings/paintings. Her third novel is a work in progress.

She is a founding member of the Toronto Thursday Night group of writers and a member of Hamilton Artists' Inc.  She has served on the executive committee of the Hamilton Poetry Centre, and for many years participated on the Literary Committee of the Hamilton Arts Council.  She is on the Canada Council reading list. She has given numerous readings of her work in Toronto and Hamilton, and Literary Chats sponsored by the Hamilton and Region Arts Council: "Dreams", "The Feminine", and "Memory", and her latest is “"The Prodigal: Then & Now." She was invited to give a multi-media public presentation to The Hamilton Association of Art, Literature and Science on the Subject of :"Two Landscapes: a Cultural Quest.”

She has been interviewed on Radio, Television and in the Print Media: on Ch.14 Hamilton; Burlinton/Oakville/Ancaster COGECO TV; McMaster Student Radio; University of Toronto Radio, and interviewed for The Hamilton Spectator, View Magazine and Forum.