Born in Detroit, Michigan to Polish-American auto workers with strong union ties, she lived in Chicago and New York before moving to San Francisco in 1950.
There, she soon discovered the literary scene in North Beach, where she became friends with many of the area's Beat poets, including Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth, and Ruth Weiss.
Ulewicz was a great influence on his early work; in fact much of his characteristic style for which he was later well-known came directly from her, and his acclaimed first book Views of Jeopardy was dedicated to her.
In 1955, at the height of media attention on North Beach and the Beats, she left for Seattle to study with Stanley Kunitz where her work took on a more formally structured approach.
In 1960 she traveled in Europe, eventually moving to London where she met with THE GROUP at Edward Lucie-Smith's and joined with other members to give public readings of their work.