Saffron was raised in Levittown, New York and attended New York University and she studied abroad in France for one year, then decided not to return to school. In Ireland, she wrote for local publications and worked as a freelancer with Newsweek. Upon returning to the United States, Saffron wrote for the Courier-News of New Jersey and she joined the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1984. As the Inquirers Moscow correspondent from 1994 to 1998, Saffron covered the Yugoslav Wars and she has written an architecture criticism column titled Changing Skyline since 1999. She is married to writer Ken Kalfus, with whom she has a daughter, Sky