Olsen was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in Wahoo, Nebraska, and moved to Omaha while a young child.
There she attended Lake School in the Near North Side through the eighth grade, living among the city's Jewish community.
At age 15, she dropped out of Omaha High School to enter the work force.
Over the years Olsen worked as a waitress, domestic worker, and meat trimmer.
She was also a union organizer and political activist in the Socialist community.
In 1932, Olsen began to write her first novel Yonnondio, the same year she gave birth to Karla, the first of four daughters.

In 1933, Olsen moved to California, where she continued her union activities.
In the 1930s she joined the American Communist party.
She was briefly jailed in 1934 while organizing a packing house workers' union (the charge was "making loud and unusual noise"), an experience she wrote about in The Nation, The New Republic, and The Partisan Review.
She later moved to San Francisco, California, where in 1936 she met and lived with Jack Olsen, who was an organizer and a longshoreman.
In 1937, she gave birth to her second child, her first child with her future husband Jack Olsen, whom she married in 1944, on the eve of his departure for service in World War II.
San Francisco remained her home until her 85th year when she moved to Berkeley, California, to a cottage behind the home of her youngest daughter.

Olsen died on January 1, 2007, in Oakland, California, aged 94.
Olsen was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in Wahoo, Nebraska, and moved to Omaha while a young child. There she attended Lake School in the Near North Side through the eighth grade, living among the city's Jewish community. At age 15, she dropped out of Omaha High School to enter the work force. Over the years Olsen worked as a waitress, domestic worker, and meat trimmer. She was also a union organizer and political activist in the Socialist community. In 1932, Olsen began to write her first novel Yonnondio, the same year she gave birth to Karla, the first of four daughters.
In 1933, Olsen moved to California, where she continued her union activities. In the 1930s she joined the American Communist party. She was briefly jailed in 1934 while organizing a packing house workers' union (the charge was "making loud and unusual noise"), an experience she wrote about in The Nation, The New Republic, and The Partisan Review. She later moved to San Francisco, California, where in 1936 she met and lived with Jack Olsen, who was an organizer and a longshoreman. In 1937, she gave birth to her second child, her first child with her future husband Jack Olsen, whom she married in 1944, on the eve of his departure for service in World War II. San Francisco remained her home until her 85th year when she moved to Berkeley, California, to a cottage behind the home of her youngest daughter.
Olsen died on January 1, 2007, in Oakland, California, aged 94.
Tillie Olsen