She studied at Bryn Mawr College, graduating in 1939, and subsequently taught English literature and creative writing at that school.

She served in the United States Navy's WAVES corps during World War II.

Deming and Meigs became a couple and moved to Wellfleet, Massachusetts, where they joined a Cape Cod artistic circle that included abstract painter Mark Rothko, critic Edmund Wilson, and writer Mary McCarthy.

[1][3] In the 1970s, Meigs turned to writing, publishing books such as Lily Briscoe: A Self-Portrait (1981), The Medusa Head (1983) and The Box Closet (1987).

"[5][6] Mary McCarthy's 1955 novel A Charmed Life depicts Meigs as "Dolly Lamb", a tiresome artist whose paintings were "cramped with preciosity and mannerism".