Michele Nayman arrived in Australia via South Africa. Her South African parents were of Latvian and Lithuanian Jewish heritage. She was awarded a Bachelor of Town and Regional Planning (Honours) degree from Melbourne University and a Master of Science (Honours) degree in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (New York City, US).
Nayman registered as a member of the Australian Society of Authors, the Writers Guild and the Society of Authors (UK) and returned to live in the UK in 1990, where she worked for the Guardian newspaper for several years. Her stories and poems have been placed in several literary awards, including the John Shaw Neilson Poetry Award, the Con Weikhardt Award, and the Fellowship of Australian Writers Short Story Award.
In 2004 Nayman was living near Oxford, writing and editing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
