Gay Courter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1944. She obtained her B.A. from Antioch College in 1966. Courter married her husband Phillip in 1968.

Courter began her career as a free-lance film writer starting in 1969. She authored her first book, The Beansprout Book, in 1973. She also served as a member of the board of directors for Childbirth and Parent Education of New Jersey in 1973. She was vice-president of that organization in 1975.

Courter gained literary acclaim with The Midwife. The book was met with praise by critics and was the eighth best-selling book of 1982. Courter also authored Code Ezra, a spy novel, in 1986. Courter has written several other books and has co-written and/ or produced several hundred documentary and educational films with her husband, Philip Courter. She won regional EMMY awards for "Where's MY Chance? The Case for Our Children" and Micro.docs on children's subjects. She produced and wrote the script for the biographical film, "Freedom From Famine: The Norman Borlaug Story" about the Nobel Peace Prize Winner.

Her non-fiction work I Speak for this Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate was nominated for Pulitzer Prize. She has been a Guardian ad Litem in Florida's courts since 1989.