Meg Wolitzer was born in Brooklyn and raised in Syosset, New York. She is the daughter of Hilma Wolitzer (née Liebman) and psychologist Morton Wolitzer. Wolitzer studied creative writing at Smith College and graduated from Brown University in 1981. She wrote her first novel, Sleepwalking, a story of three college girls obsessed with poetry and death. She also co-authored a book of cryptic crosswords, Nutcrackers: Devilishly Addictive Mind Twisters for the Insatiably Verbivorous.