Ayelet Waldman's writing is informed by her experiences as an advocate, a teacher, and a mother. 

It was her drug policy reform work and the many defendants in drug cases whom she represented while working as a federal public defender that inspired the novel Daughter's Keeper, which tells the story of a young woman facing drug charges because of her boyfriend's actions.

Ayelet's mystery series, the Mommy-Track Mysteries, draws on her experience of the sunny SoCal world of mall-hopping and Mommy-and-Me, and her working familiarity with the criminal mind, with courtrooms and jail cells, with a darker Los Angeles of drug dealers and bank robbers, gangbangers and boiler-room scam artists, that she gained during her time as a criminal defense attorney.

Picture Courtesy of Mark Costantini

Ayelet was born in Israel and grew up in Northern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University and of the Harvard Law School. Ayelet is an adjunct professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley, where she teaches an upper level seminar on the legal and social implications of the war on drugs. In addition to bookstore readings and signings, Ayelet has appeared on television and radio and is a teacher of both law and creative writing. She lectures on drug policy reform, and is a frequent speaker at Jewish book festivals and other events.

Ayelet and her husband, the novelist Michael Chabon (author of Summerland, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Wonder Boys, and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh) live in Berkeley, California with their four children.