Ann Hood was born in the Rhode Island town of West Warwick. The Knitting Circle, The Red Thread, and The Obituary Writer are among her best-selling novels. Her memoir, Comfort: A Journey Through Loss, was a New York Times Editors' Pick and was selected one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2008. Somewhere Off the Maine Coast, Waiting to Disappear, Three-Legged Horse, Something Blue, Somewhere to Spend the Night, The Properties of Water, and Ruby are among her other works. Do Not Go Gentle: My Quest for Miracles in a Cynical Time, a memoir; Developing Character Feelings, a book on the technique of writing; and An Ornithologist's Guide to Life, a collection of short stories.

The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic Monthly, Tin House, Ploughshares, and the Paris Review have all published her essays and short tales. Hood has received prizes for best American spiritual, travel, and cuisine writing, as well as the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Story and two Pushcart Prizes. With her husband and children, she now resides in Providence, Rhode Island.