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Anne was born in St. Catharines, Ontario. In 1963 she was the first graduate of the fledgling York University in Toronto. She followed a job to Saskatchewan and fell in love with the wide open spaces of the prairies. For many years Anne taught primary school in Regina. To celebrate her retirement in 2000, she backpacked through Australia and South-East Asia with her daughter.
For the next five years Anne taught University of Regina students who were studying at SUNTEP [Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program]. While at SUNTEP she collaborated with her friend and colleague, Wilfred Burton, to write Fiddle Dancer, a children's book about a Metis boy who learns to jig. The sequel, Dancing in My Bones, won three Saskatchewan Book Awards in 2009 and a Moonbeam Gold Medal in 2010. Call of the Fiddle, the final book in this trilogy about a Metis family, was published in 2011.
Anne's novel for middle-grade readers, Full Steam To Canada, was released by Coteau Books in 2011. Based on a true story, this novel traces the journey of a family who immigrate to Saskatchewan in 1903 as part of the Barr Colony. In 2009 this manuscript placed second in the John Hicks Long Manuscript Awards, sponsored by the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. Full Steam to Canada was nominated for a 2012 Diamond Willow Award and a Saskatchewan Book Award. In August 2015 Coteau published the sequel, Through Flood and Fire, which takes her characters up the wilderness trail to find their homesteads and build the new village of Lloydminster. In October 2015 this book won a Moonbeam Silver Award for children's historical fiction.
Trial By Winter, the exciting conclusion to her Barr Colony trilogy was published in January 2019 by Coteau Books. This book draws you into the fight for survival during the long, frigid prairie winter of 1903. Anne has done extensive archival research about the Barr Colony and her presentation about this fascinating chapter of Saskatchewan history will interest adults as well. In 2011 Anne moved to Victoria B.C. to take an important new job, babysitting two young grandsons. Anne returns to Saskatchewan for two weeks every April and October to participate in a retreat with her Saskatchewan writing group. She is available for readings in Saskatchewan during these times.
Anne is presently working on a young adult manuscript about the notorious Kildonan Highland Clearance that swept her characters into a prolongued ordeal, overwintering in the sub-arctic forest near Fort Churchill Manitoba.
Coteau Books, 2019,
Coteau Books, 2015,
Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2011,
Coteau Books, 2011,
Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2009,
Gabriel Dumont Institute, 2007,
Scholastic Canada, 2007,
Scholastic Canada, 2007,
Scholastic Canada, 2006,
Scholastic Canada, 2006,
Scholastic Canada, 2006,