Britt Arenander was born in Stockholm, finished her upper secondary schooling at Södra Flickläroverket, and subsequently travelled in France for a while. In the 1960s, she trained as a journalist and graduated in 1967. She has worked as a translator, freelance journalist, and debater. From 1964 to 1973, she was married to the film director Gustav Wiklund.
Representing a provocative, new femininity that gets up close to sexuality, she published her debut collection of poems Dröm om verkligheten utanför Stockholm och andra dikter in 1974. Prior to that, she published the novels Steget, 1968, Off, 1969, and Alla broar brända, 1971. Following her debut collection of poems, she published about a dozen books, including Affären som inte fanns, 1982, Lorenzas dagbok, 1990, and Anaïs Nins förlorede värld, 1995. In the 1990s she worked primarily as a translator of foreign literature, wrote radio plays, and contributed to anthologies, such as Liv och kärlek: om kvinnor av kvinnor, 1981.