Born September 13 in New York City, she attended West Virginia Wesleyan College and West Virginia University, where she earned her master's degrees in English (1973) and in social work (1977).

Anderson, with family roots in North Virginia, is best known as a poet of and an advocate for Appalachia. She was the editor and founder of Trellis: A Magazine of Poetry and Poetics (Morgantown: The Trellis Press Association, 1971-81.) In the 1970s she established the literary reputation of Appalachian poet Louise McNeill when she edited and wrote the introduction for McNeill's memoir The Milkweed Ladies, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Anderson later edited McNeill's Hill Daughter: New and Selected Poems, also for Pitt.

Maggie Anderson has won fellowships for her poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Idaho Arts Council, the MacDowell Colony, and the West Virginia Arts and Humanities Foundation. She has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Montana. Currently she is professor of Creative Writing at Kent State University, where she directs the Wick Poetry Center and edits the Wick Poetry Series of the Kent State University Press.

Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2007. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000002192.