Amy Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is well known for her works in fiction and non-fiction.

In 1985, she published her first story collection, Reason to Live, which won the Commonwealth Club of California Silver Medal. Amy is also the author of At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom and Tumble Home, and is the coeditor of the anthology, Unleashed: Poems by Writer's Dogs.

Amy's stories have appeared in Vanity Fair, Harper's, The Quarterly, The Yale Review and several anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. She also works as a contributing editor to Bomb Magazine.

Amy has won several prestigious literary awards for her work, including the Hobson Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Over the years, she has served as a judge for the National Book Award, The PEN/Revson Award, The PEN/ Hemingway Award, and the Mary McCarthy Prize among others.

Amy has also taught at a number of colleges and universities across the country, including New York University, Saint Mary's College, and the University of Missouri. She is currently a faculty member in the graduate writing programs of Bennington College in Vermont and The New School University in New York City.