Ann is the author of The Promise and The Personal History of Rachel DuPree. She was nominated for England’s 2009 Orange Prize and for the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers. In the United States, she won the Stephen Turner Award for New Fiction and the Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction. She was shortlisted for the Ohioana Book Award and was a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writer. Ann serves on the selection committee for the Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction

She graduated from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work and earned a Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Houston. Ann has been a social worker in psychiatric and nursing home facilities, and taught sociology at a junior college in Texas.  She lives in the Houston area.