D. Anne Love photo

D. Anne Love

I was born in western Tennessee, the eldest of four children. My father was a lover of books who taught me to read even before I started school. My mother was (and still is!) the world’s best mom and a lover of music who sang in the kitchen as she taught me to cook.

I enjoyed playing games and riding bikes but my favorite activity was reading. Among my favorite authors were Lois Lenski, Louisa May Alcott and Harper Lee. I was in love with words and stories, with the feel of paper as I turned the pages, with the smell of ink.

Major, the golden retriever

In high school, and later, in college, I discovered newspaper writing and worked for the paper to help pay for my education. I became a teacher, and later, a school principal, and then a college professor, but I never forgot my dream of someday writing books. In 1989, I began writing full time, and in 1995 Holiday House published BESS’S LOG CABIN QUILT, my first novel for young readers.

Since then I have published a number of other books. Writing is still my full time job, though I spend a lot of time visiting schools, talking to students and teachers about my favorite subjects: books and reading!

In addition to Texas, I’ve lived in Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, and California. Currently I live in central Ohio with my husband Ron, and Major our rambunctious golden retriever. But Austin, Texas is, and always will be the place I call home.


“I'm saying it's totally oblivious to how people feel. Take the ocean, for instance. You can love it, but it doesn't love you back. It will suck you under and steal your breath and beauty can make you cry, or that the sound of the tide coming in at night is the best lullaby you ever heard.”
D. Anne Love
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