Brant was born in a suburb of Detroit, in a Mohawk of the Bay of Quinte family from Ontario, Canada. She has lived much of her life in Michigan and Canada. She married at 17 and had three daughters. The marriage - to an abusive, alcoholic husband - ended in divorce.As a single mother who had not completed high school, she worked in various jobs to support herself and her children. At the age of 33, Brant began to identify herself as a lesbian. She didn't identify herself as a writer until she was forty.

Her major works are Mohawk Trail (1985), Food & Spirit (1991), and Writing as Witness (1994). In many of her works, Brant establishes thematic links among homophobia, racism and sexism. Brant refers to Native-American gays and lesbians as "Two Spirits". She believes that homophobia, sexism and racism were brought to North America by the European invaders.

"I am a Mohawk lesbian," Beth Brant proudly states in Writing as Witness, "These two identities are parts of who I am." In 1976 she met Dorsz, a Polish-American woman 12 years her junior. They have been together ever since.