Ann Cameron was born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, in 1943 in the middle of an October blizzard. She graduated from Radcliffe College, where she studied with the poet Robert Lowell. He called one of her poems "magical" and encouraged her to keep writing. After graduating from college she worked in publishing in New York City, and studied at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received an M.F.A. in English in 1972.

Her first book for children, THE SEED, was published in 1974. The book was inspired by a seed growing on her windowsill: transformed into a story, it became a young seed in the ground afraid to grow because it had heard a terrible storm in the unknown world above it. Ann's books about Julian Bates and his family found their beginning in stories told her by a South African friend, Julian DeWette. "I wanted to write stories that would include the emotions all children feel," Ann says. "Now that I've heard from children around the world who like my books, I'm delighted to find that I've really done it!"

In 1983, Ann visited Guatemala and decided to divide her time between New York City and Guatemala. Ann now lives most of the year in Panajachel, Guatemala, the small town she calls San Pablo in her short novel THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THE WORLD. She has worked to improve the Panajachel library so that Guatemalan children will have the same opportunity to read, learn and dream that American children have. She is married to Bill Cherry, a former sailor, newspaper reporter, editor and retired staff director of a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. They live in view of three volcanoes, a beautiful lake and a waterfall, in a small house with flowers growing over the roof and a lemon tree in the garden.