Born and raised in San Diego, California, one of eight children in a working-class family, Traxler was much influenced by her maternal grandmother, Nora Dunne, a poet from County Cork, Ireland, who lived with the family for several years during Traxler’s childhood.
She taught creative writing at Kansas Wesleyan University, Salina, KS, for 17 years.
"[14] Traxler's 1994 poetry collection, Forbidden Words, examines the process of writing and giving voices to the voiceless.
[15] Publishers Weekly wrote that "These poems strike a thrilling balance between personal disclosure and the rigors of writing.
"[16] Her first novel, Blood (2001), is a literary thriller with its focus on a Boston artist's life and work, and the complications that arise when her solitary focus is broken by the murder of a friend and colleague and followed by a series of brutal killings that edge ever closer to her own life.