A. Manette Ansay

1. Manette Ansay grew up in Wisconsin among 67 cousins and over 200 second cousins. She is a New York Times best-selling, award-winning author of six novels, including: Vinegar Hill, an Oprah Book Club selection; Midnight Champagne, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Sister; River Angel; and Blue Water, a Target Book Club Selection, as well as a short story collection, Read This and Tell Me What It Says, and a memoir, Limbo. Her stories and poems have appeared in many publications, including The North American Review, Story, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her latest novel is Good Things I Wish You (HarperCollins). Ansay's awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, a Pushcart Prize, the Nelson Algren Prize, a Friends of American Writers Prize, and two Great Lakes Book Awards.

Ansay is a sought after keynote speaker at universities, literary festivals, fundraising events, book clubs, women's groups, and other organizations around the country. She speaks about the writing life, how she became a writer, and the myriad issues in her books.

Ansay started writing as a New Year's resolution on January 1, 1988. After developing a muscle disorder, it was necessary for her to find a career in which she could spend time sitting down. Though she's since recovered, she's been writing ever since.

Ansay lives with her daughter in Florida, where she teaches in the MFA program at the University of Miami. She received her MFA from Cornell University. She has taught at Vanderbilt University, Marquette University, and the University of the South.

Good Things I Wish You (and a Few Things I Don’t): The Ups and Downs of the Writing Career

Is That Supposed to Be Me? (And Other Reactions from Family Members and Friends)

Limbo: How a Life-Altering Illness Lead To A Lifetime of Writing

Fiction: The Best Way to Tell the Truth

Reinventing the Historical Novel

Literary Scrapbooking: Preserving Written Memories