She studied writing with Helen C. White at the University of Wisconsin Madison from 1933 to 1936 and then moved to New York City, where she started at Harper & Bros as secretary to the children's books editor Ursula Nordstrom.
Their daughter Ellen is writer Crescent Dragonwagon and their son is poker tournament champion Steve Zolotow.
She contributed a story called Enemies, illustrated by Ben Shecter, to The Big Book for Peace where she appears alongside other well-known authors and illustrators including Lloyd Alexander, Steven Kellogg and Trina Schart Hyman.
[5] One of Zolotow's titles most widely held in WorldCat libraries is When the Wind Stops, a picture book edited by Ursula Nordstrom and published in 1962 with illustrations by Joe Lasker.
"[8] Zolotow's 1972 book William's Doll (illustrated by William Pène du Bois), about gender stereotypes, was adapted by composer Mary Rodgers and lyricist Sheldon Harnick for the children's album Free to Be ... You and Me, and then for the subsequent television special.