Alison Fell graduated from Edinburgh Art College and began writing for Scotland Magazine. She moved to London in 1970, where she co-founded the Woman's Street Theatre Group (later known as "Monstrous Regiment").
She worked at the underground newspaper Ink, and contributed to Spare Rib.
In addition to her output of poetry and fiction, she held the School of English and American Studies Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in 1998.