Marge Piercy was born on March 31, 1936, in Detroit, Michigan. She grew up in a racially diverse working-class neighborhood. Her father was in and out of work for several years, and the two never developed a strong father-daughter bond. Her mother was a high-strung but imaginative woman who Piercy credits with inspiring her to be a writer. Piercy's mother told her daughter odd tales and folklore and encouraged her to read voraciously. Although their relationship became strained as Piercy grew into young adulthood, she and her mother reunited later in life and were close until the older woman's death in 1985.

One of the most influential people in Piercy's life was her maternal grandmother, who was born in Lithuania, the daughter of a rabbi. Grandmother Hannah preserved a strict Jewish heritage regardless of some of her descendents' marriages to Christians. Piercy was raised Jewish by her mother and...