Born in Germantown, Philadelphia, Poet Laureate Maxine Kumin was, as a child, fortunate to experience and blend two great religious and cultural traditions. Her parents were Reform Jewish, but not very pious or observant. Directly next door to Kumin's childhood home was a Catholic convent and school. The Sisters of Saint Joseph are a teaching order, and it was to this school that Kumin's parents sent their daughter. Later, her childhood experiences contributed to her use of both Christian and Jewish rituals, often combined, in her poetry.

Upon high school graduation, Kumin enrolled at Radcliffe College, where she earned a Bachelor and Master of Arts in English. Known for her plain, direct style of writing, readers may find her work more accessible than some other poets. Her style is sometimes compared to that of Robert Frost, and Kumin has stated that while much of her work is set in New England, her emphasis is not so much on the storied geography of that region. She targets the people and animals of the landscape instead.

Some place her work within the pastoral, but Kumin is quick to specify that her intent is not to romanticize the people and landscape. Her work "has real manure in it and real rain, and real anguish and loss just as much as it has some of the sunny hours." She has published ten volumes of poetry, four novels, a collection of short stories, three essays, and children's books. She is regarded for her meticulous attention to detail.

Kumin lives on an isolated, 200-acre farm, raises horses and collects maple sugar from the trees on her property. When asked to address the eternal poet's dilemma of writing versus working, she claims that the poetry drives her, and if she could choose, she would choose a life of full-time poetry writing. However, she stated, "You can't make a living selling poems, but you can make a pretty good living giving lectures and teaching." Among awards received during her career are the Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize for Poetry, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (for Up Country), the Aiken Taylor Prize, the 1994 Poets' Prize, an American Academy and institute of Arts and Letters Award, an Academy of American Poets fellowship, the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize, and six honorary degrees. Additionally she was appointed poetry consultant to the Library of Congress for 1981-1982.

She has worked as a visiting professor and poet-in-residence at a number of colleges and universities, and taught English at Tufts University. She currently teaches poetry at New England College's Low-Residency MFA Program.