Ann Howard Creel was born on July 24, 1953. She grew up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, the second daughter of a professor and a teacher. Reading has always been a big part of her life. Her mother swears she taught herself to read simply by following along as her first books were being read aloud to her. By the age of ten, she was writing daily in a diary and by the age of twelve, she had written a book on an old manual typewriter that her father was going to throw away. Instead she dragged the typewriter into her room and began to hunt and peck away.
When it came time to choose a career, she didn’t initially consider writing as a profession. Instead she attended the University of Texas and received a degree in nursing and became a Registered Nurse. After finally moving west in 1985, she went back to graduate school and received a Master’s degree. The urge to write, however, had never left her. She began writing again at night after working, and after moving to Colorado, she took two creative writing courses, and then wrote her first book for children, Water at the Blue Earth. Currently she works as a school nurse and writes part-time. Every night Creel still reads novels. Favorite children’s authors, among many others, are Claudia Mills and Cynthia Rylant. Favorite adult authors are the late great Penelope Fitzgerald, Louise Erdrich, Willa Cather, Jane Hamilton, William Gay, and so many others it would “take a village” to list them all.
Now living in an area southeast of Denver, Creel feels grateful for the natural beauty of her surroundings and finds in them daily inspiration to write. She has three sons, Brian, Ben, and Scott, and two dogs, a cat, and a hamster. For pleasure, she and her family enjoy snowshoeing, hiking, and boating.