Rockcastle grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, and received her B.A. from Douglass College (Rutgers University). She moved to Minnesota in 1974 to do a Ph.D. in English but halfway through decided to focus on creative writing instead. She finished her M.A. with a double emphasis in English and creative writing in 1980. She taught in the creative writing program at the University of Minnesota for four years before joining the MALS faculty at Hamline in 1991.  In 1997 she founded Water~Stone Review, a national literary review published by GLS.  The Review has won a Pushcart Prize, a bronze award for design excellence from the Minnesota Magazine Publishers Association, and an award from Best American Poetry 2002. In 1999 she received a Distinguished Teaching and Service Award from the Graduate School of Liberal Studies.

Mary François Rockcastle is married to Garth Rockcastle, Dean of the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Historic Preservation at the University of Maryland. They are exploring life as a commuting couple. They have two daughters, Maura and Siobhan.