Kristin T. Schnider was raised in Zurich. She began publishing prose in various literary journals as of 1982, prior to participating in the Ingeborg Bachmann competition which gained her a wider audience in 1984. Her debut novel Die Kodiererin, published in 1989, deals with inhuman living and working conditions. She has been living as a freelance writer in Wassen in the Canton of Uri since 1998.

Kristin T. Schnider was President of the German-Swiss PEN Center from 2002-2010, and was a Member of the Board of International PEN from 2007-2010.