Betsey Hansell studied philosophy at Mount Holyoke College and earned a BFA in printmaking and an MFA in painting at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she taught drawing, and exhibited her work regularly in galleries and museums.

She earned her living as a reporter at the Detroit Free Press and has contributed to articles and criticism to the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News. She also illustrated a book of poetry by Joyce Carol Oates, Women Whose Lives Are Food: Men Whose Lives Are Money

She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband and four cats.