Ann Hood was born in West Warwick, RI. After receiving her B.A. in English from the University of Rhode Island, she became a flight attendant for TWA. She has lived in Boston, St. Louis, and New York City, where she attended graduate school in literature at New York University.
In April 2002 Hood’s two-year-old daughter, Grace, died suddenly from a potent strain of strep. On her Web site Hood says that, since she was a child, she has used writing to help her figure out problems. But, she says, “when I lost Grace I also lost my ability to use words. I couldn’t read and I couldn’t write. Letters didn’t come together to make words; sentences did not make sense. I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t focus.” Nearly two years later Hood wrote an essay on lies about grief for a literary journal’s special issue on lying. “That essay opened the door back to writing for me.” After Grace’s death Ann Hood took up knitting, and from her experiences came the moving novel The Knitting Circle.
Ann Hood lives in Providence, RI, with her husband and two children. In addition to books, she publishes essays in many magazines, newspapers, and journals.
For more information, see Ann Hood’s web site.
