Lyudmila Evgenyevna Ulitskaya was born in the Davlekanovo Village near Ufa (Bashkiria) on February 21, 1943. Her family was there staying there in evacuation during World War II.
After the war they returned to Moscow, where Lyudmila finished school, and then — the Biological Faculty of the Lomonosov Moscow State University.
From 1968 to 1970 Lyudmila Ulitskaya worked at the General Genetics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. She was fired for reprinting some underground books (samizdat). It made her decide to quit public service for all; thus she started writing essays, children's plays, as well as plays for the radio, children's and puppet theaters, as well as reviewing plays and translating poems from the Mongolian language.

Books by Lyudmila Ulitskaya came to be published in magazines in the late 1980s. She gained popularity after the release of the films Liberty Sisters (1990) and The Woman for All (1991) written by her. Her story Sonechka (1992) published in the New World magazine also made her famous. In 1994 it was recognized the best translated book of the year in France and brought her the prestigious Medici Award of France.
Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s first book was published in France too: it was the collection Poor Relatives (1993) in French.
Her book Medea and her Children published in 1996 made her one of the finalists of the Booker Prize of 1997 and made her quite famous. The year 2001 saw the publication of her novel Kukotsky's Incident, which became the winner of the Russian Booker Prize.
The novel Daniel Stein, the Translator published in 2006 soon got the best-seller status.
In 2007 the writer organized Lyudmila Ulitskaya's Foundation for support of humanitarian initiatives.

In 2009 the Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya was included into the list of contenders for the international Booker Prize.
 
In 2011 Lyudmila Ulitskaya introduced her novel The Green Tent telling about dissidents and life of the generation of the 1960s.
Critics refer to Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s works as “the prose of nuances” and point out the author’s thorough work and her special world view that she shares with readers.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya's books have been translated into more than to 30 languages.
On November 28, 2014 Lyudmila Ulitskaya was awarded the Honourable Legion Order.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya is married to the Russian sculptor Andrey Krasulin and has two adult sons.