Sue Woolfe grew up in the Blue Mountains and was educated at the universities of Sydney and New England. She has worked as a teacher, scriptwriter, editor and documentary film-maker.
Woolfe's first novel Painted Woman (1989) was runner-up in the ABC Bicentennial Awards and she later adapted the novel for performances on stage and radio. With Kate Grenville she published Making Stories (1993), a study of literary works in progress from authors such as Peter Carey, Thomas Keneally and Helen Garner.Woolfe wrote her second novel, Leaning Towards Infinity (1996) with assistance from the Australia Council, and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for best book from the South-East Asia and South Pacific Region. She has since published a number of essays and short stories and edited the anthology Wild Minds: Stories of Outsiders and Dreamers (1999).