Ann Beattie's work has appeared in four O. The Best American Short Tales of the Century, edited by John Updike, and Jennifer Egan's The Best American Short Stories 2014. She won the PEN/Malamud Prize for achievement in the short story in 2000. She won the Rea Prize for Short Fiction in 2005. She was the University of Virginia's Edgar Allan Poe Professor of Literature and Creative Writing.

She belongs to the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her husband, Lincoln Perry, and she split their time between Maine and Key West, Florida.