Miriam Bat-Ami's father was a Conservative Rabbi and her mother was a Julliard graduate in violin. Bat-Ami grew up in a home filled with spiritual concerns and music. Although always a writer, she at first wrote for herself and not for an audience. She attended Boston College for a year before transferring to Hebrew University in Jerusalem where she earned her B.A. in 1974. She then traveled through Israel and the United States for several years, working at a variety of jobs that included selling jewelry, guiding tours at the Israeli Museum, clerking at a clothing store, typing interrogatories at a law firm, accounting for a travel agency, and serving as an executive assistant at the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles.

In 1978, she began attending California State University, Los Angeles, where she earned her M.A. in 1980.

She took a job teaching primarily children's...