She currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband, musician Don Hollowood.

[2] Her honors include fellowships from the Ucross Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Yaddo.

Her first book, Mad River, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize of the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1994.

Some of Beatty's poetry, considered sexually explicit, led to problems with a scheduled reading at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in April 2008.

Along with Ellen Wadey, Beatty hosts and produces Prosody, a weekly radio program featuring the work of national writers.