Elaine Moon was educated at Sydney Girls' High School, and did office work before training at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She and her husband Ken Moon lived in Sydney from 1950, and together they supported their family of four children from 1961-1962 in England, Italy, France and Holland by means of their freelance writing.

Back in Australia, she completed a distance education degree with the University of New England, and became an English Literature tutor at that university, and later a lecturer and Senior Lecturer. She gained a PhD in 1978. She collaborated with Ken Moon on some non-fiction books but mainly confined herself to scholarly articles.

With Ken she co-judged the 1998 and 1999 Dorothea McKellar National Poetry Competition.