Ann Nolder Heinz

I grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, where life flowed as deep and tranquil as the Cedar River that divided east from west. I was fortunate enough to be born into a family where books were collected and revered. My earliest memories are of the sublime pleasure to be had from reading, first cuddled next to my grandmother in her big overstuffed rocking chair as she read the children’s classics aloud, then curled up on my own as I graduated from story collections and Little Golden Books to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and finally to the contemporary and classic novels in my mother’s library. I was already a lifelong book junkie, the first step to becoming a writer.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington with a major in sociology. When I am not writing, I work as the office manager of my husband’s civil engineering and surveying firm. We reside in East Dundee, Illinois, where several “depots” on the Underground Railroad were said to have been located.