Anna Bailey was born in 1995 and grew up in Gloucestershire, before going on to study creative writing at Bath Spa University. She moved to the US hoping to become a journalist, but ended up working as a Starbucks barista in the Rocky Mountains. In 2018, she returned to the UK and enrolled on a writing course with Curtis Brown Creative, where she completed her first novel, inspired by her experience of small-town America. She lives in France.