Mary Jo Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on August 15, 1954. Her father was an advertising executive, and her mother was a painter, an influence that can be seen in many of Salter's works. She was raised in Baltimore, Maryland and Detroit, Michigan and she then attended Harvard University where she studied under the poet Elizabeth Bishop (whose style Salter has been said to emulate). Salter graduated from Harvard in 1976. She then went to England to attend New Hall, Cambridge where she earned her master's degree with first-class honors in 1978. After that, Salter spent a year in France on an Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship. She married poet and novelist Brad Leithauser whom she had met in 1980.

Since 1984, Salter has been intermittently affiliated with Mt. Holyoke, a liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, mixing teaching with international travel. Salter has also served as the Emily...