Roiphe was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from the Brearley School in 1953, and received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1957.

Over a four-decade career, Roiphe has proven so prolific that the critic Sally Eckoff observed, "tracing Anne Roiphe's career often feels like following somebody through a revolving door: the requirements of keeping the pace can be trying." (Eckoff described the writer as "a free-thinking welter of contradictions, a never-say-die feminist who's absolutely nuts about children"). Roiphe published her first novel, Digging Out, in 1967. Her second, Up The Sandbox (1970), became a national best-seller and made the author's career.

Roiphe has since published seven novels and two memoirs, while contributing essays and reviews to The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, and others. In 1993, The New York Times described her as "a writer who has never toed a party line, feminist or otherwise." Her 1996 memoir Fruitful A memoir of Modem Motherhood was nominated for the National Book Award.

From 1997 to 2002, she served as a columnist for The New York Observer. Her memoir Epilogue is forthcoming in 2008.

Roiphe is the mother of the cultural critic Katie Roiphe, and Emily Carter.

Fiction

• Digging Out (1967)
• Up The Sandbox (1970)
• Long Division (1972)
• Torch Song (1977)
• Loving Kindness (1987)
• If You Knew Me (1993)
• The Pursuit of Happiness (1991)
• Secrets of the City (2003)
• An Imperfect Lens (2006)

Non-fiction

• Generation Without Memory: A Jewish Journey Through Christian America (1981)
• Your Child's Mind: The Complete Book of Infant and Child Mental Health Care (co-authored with Dr. Herman Roiphe) (1985)
• A Season For Healing, Reflections on the Holocaust (1988)
• A Mother's Eye: Motherhood and Feminism (1997)
• Married: A fine Predicament (2002)
• Water from the Well: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah (2006)

Memoirs

• Fruitful: A Memoir of Modern Motherhood (1996)
• 1185 Park Avenue, A Memoir (2000)
• Epilogue: A Memoir (2008)