Ann Anderson Evans

Ann Anderson Evans is made of what she has been: professor, troubadour, teacher of ESL, business owner, wanderer, Christian Scientist, Episcopalian Unitarian-Universalist, student, linguist, accomplished cook, swimmer, legal secretary, farm hand, wife, wife again, wife again, twice a mother. Today, she’s a writer, the piano in a band, a Buddhist, book reviewer, soprano in the community choir, and walker of her Sealyham Terrier Gus.

Her BA from New York University was in French and Spanish. She also has an MA in English from NYU and another in Linguistics from Montclair State University, where she taught freshman writing for many years. She delighted in teaching prospective poets as well as the soccer team, engineers, scientists… and the reluctant ones.

Her writing has been recognized with three literary awards, a SOVAS nomination for narration of THE SWEET PAIN OF BEING ALIVE (the equivalent of the Oscars but for voice actors), and a nomination for the Pushcart Prize for her story, Precious Love.

Her first memoir, DARING TO DATE AGAIN (SheWrites Press 2014) is the story of what happened when she began dating at 60. Her adventures took her from New Jersey to Zimbabwe and challenged the going standards of personal and sexual morality.

Her second memoir, THE SWEET PAIN OF BEING ALIVE (Austin Macauley, 2024) is about her marriage to Terry. Ann didn’t think much about secrets until she woke up one morning and found him dead of suicide. They were healthy and seemingly happy, so she was blindsided. As she made her way toward uncovering the reason why he had left this life, she changed the way she viewed gender, sex, marriage, right, wrong, good, and bad.

The final book in Ann’s memoir trilogy is THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, a Memoir. In it, Ann leaves New York in 1964 with $400 and a one-way ticket to Lisbon and doesn’t come back for ten years. She is the spiritual sister of Isabel Archer, the protagonist in Henry James’s eponymous novel. Both women are dissatisfied with the avenues open to them in America and wonder if women’s lives are richer in Europe. Ann lives deeply in Spain, Italy, Israel, and Greece. Her trusting American nature leaves her vulnerable, but she grows tougher, wiser, and more resourceful. Over a hundred years separate Ann from Isabel Archer, but how little has changed!

Her short stories have been published in Entropy, The Opiate, Pulse, Phantasmagoria, Forge, Under the Sun, Ozone Park Journal, Phoebe, The Raven’s Perch, Words & Images, Pedagogy, and Better Than Starbucks; book reviews have appeared in The Literary Review, Midwest Book Review, The Laurel Review, and PANK. Her academic work has been published in Pedagogy and on Kindle. 

Follow Ann on Substack (https://vintagewisdomannandersonevans.substack.com), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ann.evans.9849), or on Bluesky (annandersonevans.bsky.social).

Media

Ann has appeared on television, radio and podcasts, with appearances on The Discovery Channel’s Sex in America special, NPR Author’s Corner, The Author’s Show, ArtistFirst, KGUA, Gualala, California, JenningsWire, Beyond Fifty Radio: Daniel Davis, Kim Power Stilson, Donna Seebo Show and The Michael Dresser Show. She shares her experiences and insights using a well-traveled lifetime and a sense of humor and joy on topics such as what makes a memoir tick to her views on marriage, suicide, gender dysphoria, aging, sex, and patriotism. She had been interviewed several times by Sangita Myska, a popular host on the British radio talk show network, LBC.

She is currently available for media appearances (TV, radio, print, and online). Please send Ann details about your appearance request and inquire about availability.