[10] She grew up on Treleven farm[11] in Addison County, Vermont and graduated from Mount Abraham Union High School.

[13] After traveling to the Middle East, Europe and Latin America as a child, she attended Middlebury College, where she majored in political science and graduated in 2004.

[15] In 2006, Mitchell debuted a draft of her "folk opera" Hadestown, which she wrote in collaboration with arranger Michael Chorney and director Ben T.

[20][21] Described as "the story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in post-apocalyptic Depression-era America,[22] the album includes guest appearances by Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Ben Knox Miller of The Low Anthem, and The Haden Triplets (Petra, Rachel, and Tanya Haden).

[24][25] Mitchell opened the North American leg of Bon Iver's autumn 2012 tour, which included two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall.

[28] The album, produced by Gary Paczosa, was released in February 2013,[29] winning a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Song.

In 2019, Mitchell was appearing as part of a three-piece "supergroup" called Bonny Light Horseman, consisting of herself, Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and guitarist Josh Kaufman.

In June 2021, American supergroup Big Red Machine announced their second studio album, How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?, which features Mitchell's guest vocals in three of its tracks: "Latter Days", "Phoenix", and "New Auburn".

An article in Acoustic Guitar magazine calls Mitchell "fearlessly emotive" and compares her to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Gillian Welch.