M. Ann Jacoby

Born on the West Coast and raised on the East Coast, my father is from the Midwest and my mother from the South, so I consider myself a fairly well-rounded American. My interest in writing started when I was ten with a 'book' of poetry that I wrote for my fifth-grade teacher. "Keep it up," she jotted on the last page. And over the next twenty-five years, I did take a writing class here and there but my main creative outlet was as an art director for a publishing company where I still work designing book jackets and covers. I know it sounds all a little too premeditated but my commitment, finally, to writing a novel came through a need to express myself through words -- to tell stories -- not as a result of where I happen to work. For me they are two completely separate worlds.