Arlene MacLeod was born in Massachusetts and grew up in New England and upstate New York. She earned her undergraduate degree in government and history from Bowdoin College, and she holds a Ph.D in Political Science from Yale University. She taught comparative politics and political theory at Bates College, where her courses combined her interests in literature, politics, and imagination.

She lives with her husband near the coast in Maine, where she enjoys walking, swimming in the ocean, and painting. She has always loved to read, especially books that transport the reader to a new time or place.

She is the author of two novels, Far Other Worlds, and A Necessary Garden. And the author of two collections of short stories, In An Italian Garden, and Ruins: Stories and Photographs (with her son Morgan MacLeod.)