About Anna

Anna’s first novel You and I and Someone Else is set in 1990’s North Carolina and tells the story of Frannie Lewis as she navigates the eccentricities of her parents’ relationship while seeking a partner for her own marriage. As a love song to a South long gone and an examination of grief’s impact, the novel considers how the stories we hold close are both comfort and danger. You and I and Someone Else was a finalist in fiction for the Foreword Reviews’ 2018 Indie Book Awards and the finalist for the Georgia Author of the Year Award in literary fiction.

Anna has published short stories, essays, and flash fiction in many literary journals and magazines, including Puerto del Sol, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Sun, Reckon Review, and Arts and Letters. Awards include the Emerging Writer Award from the Southern Women Writers Association, the Frank O’Connor Award in Fiction from descantmagazine, and third place in fiction from the Porter Fleming Literary Competition.

Before earning her MFA in Fiction from Bowling Green State University, Anna was a features writer and music journalist for several North Carolina publications. After her MFA, she went on to earn a M.A. in English Literature from Georgia State University and began her career in academia while also becoming fluent in Spanish. She taught writing classes at Georgia Perimeter College/Perimeter College at Georgia State University for almost thirty years and was also a Visiting Lecturer in Fiction in Emory’s undergraduate creative writing program. She has also taught creative writing online for The Porch, and, as part of the non-profit Reforming Arts, in the Georgia women’s prison system.

For the last ten years of her academic career, she was Editor of The Chattahoochee Review, expanding its focus to include international writing alongside Southern writing and connecting the journal to projects like workshops for veterans and visiting writer events for college students. At the same time, she was Director of the Townsend Prize for Fiction, Georgia’s famed literary award, for ten years, and loved working with local literary organizations while celebrating Georgia’s talented, diverse writing community.

After recently leaving academia to pursue freelance work and to find more time for her own fiction, Anna has written book reviews for The Atlanta Journal Constitution and other publications and is a book club facilitator for one of Atlanta’s long-standing book clubs. She is proud to have finished a story collection and a novel that are both seeking homes. Meanwhile, she is at work on a new novel that is polyphonic and thrilleresque.

With plans to move back to western North Carolina, she currently lives in Atlanta with two cats, a dog named Ada (and another coming soon), lots of books and houseplants, and a mandolin she wants to play again once she gets her groove and finger blisters back. She is an avid hiker, traveler, and cook and has a small jewelry design business that features one-of-a-kind bracelets and necklaces.