Goldsmith was born in Melbourne, Victoria, to an Australian-Jewish family. She started learning the piano as a young child, and music remains an abiding passion. She initially trained as a speech pathologist and worked for several years with children suffering from severe communication impairment until becoming a full-time writer in the late 1980s. From 1987 and through the 1990s she taught creative writing at Deakin University, and she continues to conduct workshops and mentor new novelists.
