Vivienne Cleven was born in 1968 in Surat, Queensland and grew up in western Queensland, homeland of her Aboriginal heritage. She left school at thirteen to work with her father as a jillaroo: building fences, mustering cattle, and working at various jobs on stations throughout Queensland and New South Wales.
Cleven won the David Unaipon Award for unpublished Aboriginal writing with her first novel Bitin' Back in 2000. In 2006, she won the Kate Challis RAKA Award for both Bitin' Back and her later novel, Her Sister's Eye; the latter also won the Prize for Indigenous Writing (Victorian Premier's Literary Awards). In 2005, she adapted Bitin' Back for the stage.