About

A native of Central Florida, where she lives with her husband Bill, Ann holds a Master’s Degree in Gifted Child Education from the University of South Florida. She has three grown sons and eight grandchildren, and has taught every grade level from kindergarten to graduate school. She retired from teaching English in 2004.

After graduating from the University of Florida in 1961, Ann spent a year as a governess for the family of a Count and Countess at their castle in the tiny Bavarian village of Neufrauenhofen. Her memoir, American Governess, published in 2020, tells the fascinating story of that experience.

Ann’s most recent memoir, The Girl Who Talked Too Much, tells the story of growing up with a sibling who had an intellectual disability combined with Tourette’s Syndrome, which gave a window into a unique mind.

Ann began writing poetry in the late 1980s as part of her therapy as the adult child of an alcoholic. It became essential to her recovery.

She considers poetry-writing a risk-taking activity and shared her own, deeply personal first drafts with her students, indicating that she took the same kind of risks she asked of them. Many of her students won awards with their poetry.

Ann has published two chapbooks of her poems: Awakening, Poems of a Marionette Who Cut the Strings, and The Only Sweet I Crave. Many other poems remain unpublished, but will appear in the Blog and the Poetry section from time to time.