Ann Pearlman was born in Washington D.C. and moved around several Midwestern cities, most notably Chicago and Pittsburgh. As an adult, she settled in Ann Arbor, where The Christmas Cookie Club is set. Ann received an undergraduate degree in Anthropology, and a graduate degree in Clinical Social Work and maintained a private psychotherapy practice in Ann Arbor for many years. She studied writing at the University of Michigan, attended workshops at Sewanee and Squaw Valley Writers' Conferences and wrote her first book, Getting Free: Women and Psychotherapy with two colleagues. Keep the Home Fires Burning: How to Have an Affair With Your Spouse, garnered the attention of the Oprah Winfrey Show and several other TV talk shows. Her memoir, Infidelity, was nominated for National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, and made into a Lifetime movie by Lionsgate. Inside the Crips, with a foreword by Ice T, took readers into the life of a Crip gang member and the California Prison system. When she's not writing, Ann makes art: metal sculptures, acrylic and watercolor paintings, jewelry, and altered books. She also loves to dance to a wide assortment of music (blues, rock, rap, and classical) and work out. On a winter day in Ann Arbor, you can find Ann with her friends or family making homemade jams, cookies and inventing recipes. Or escaping the snow for a beach and snorkeling. Ann has three children and four grandchildren.