Sharon Creech was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, where she grew up with her parents (Ann and Arvel), one sister (Sandy), and three brothers (Dennis, Doug and Tom). She often used to visit her cousins in Quincy, Kentucky, which has found its way into many of her books - transformed into Bybanks, Kentucky. Bybanks appears in Walk Two Moons, “Chasing Redbird” and “Bloomability”. Bybanks also makes a brief appearance (by reference, but not by name) in “The Wanderer”.

At college she became intrigued by story-telling after taking literature and writing courses, and later became a teacher of High School English and Writing in England and Switzerland.

She is married to Lyle Rigg, a headmaster in New Jersey, and has two grown children, Rob and Karin.

Although initially writing adult novels, since penning Absolutely Normal Chaos , published in 1990, she has focused on writing mainly about young people. She has written both novels and picture books.She often embeds serious topics into her stories, including such themes as independence, trust, childhood, adulthood, and death, often using humour to soften them.

Creech also varies in her writing style. Books such as Love That Dog and Heartbeat were written in verse, whereas other books like Ruby Holler and Walk Two Moons are in a narrative style.

Creech has won several awards, including the Newbery Medal and Carnegie Medal.

In 1995 Walk Two Moons won the Newbery Medal, the United Kingdom Reading Association Award, and the United Kingdom’s Children's Book Award. In 1997, it also won the Literaturhaus Award, Austria, and the Young Adult Sequoyah Award, Oklahoma, USA .

Bloomability won the IRA/CBC Children's Choices award in 1999.

The Wanderer won the Parents' Choice Award, USA, in 2000, and the Newbery Honor Award in 2001.

Absolutely Normal Chaos won the YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, USA in 2001.

Ruby Holler received the 2002 Carnegie Medal.