She was born in Montreal in 1947, and studied English literature at McGill University there. After spending time as a freelance writer and broadcaster in Vancouver in the 1970s, she moved to Toronto to work full-time as a literary commentator on CBC Stereo’s program, a program she hosted from 1996 until it ended in 2007.since its debut in 1990.
Her guests have included such names as Mordecai Richler, Alice Munro, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, J.M. Coetzee, Toni Morrison, Michael Ondaatje and Zadie Smith. Guest Kazuo Ishiguro called her “one of the finest interviewers of authors I’ve come across anywhere in the world.” John LeCarré ended his interview by telling her: “You do it better than anyone I know.”,. Wachtel was named to the order of Canada in 2004, and a decade later was promoted from Member to Officer..