She will forever be indebted to those literary pioneers who had the courage, the talent, and the temerity to gift us all with an art form of our own. And when, at the ripe old age of thirty, she realized that she was not like other girls, the great world of lesbian literature opened its arms and provided her with a safe haven in which to grow and learn about her new identity. For the past three decades, Ann has worked at a succession of premier institutions, designing marketing and advancement materials that promote, promulgate, and extol the benefits of indifferent liberal arts education.Īll this time, she continued to write.

Soon, the allure of higher education coaxed Ann back to school. Her duties included making certain that the mobile library always contained at least six copies of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, visiting the county juvenile detention unit (it was a great way to catch up with her brothers), and showing public service films about safe sex to pre-teens at 4-H Clubs all across her part of 'The New South.' After graduation, she got a job driving a young adult bookmobile-and spent her days piloting the great rig across the dusty back roads of rural North Carolina. Four days in after-school detention helped her cultivate a greater appreciation for the rigors of research.)Ĭollege at an indifferent liberal arts institution taught Ann that understanding subject/verb agreement was not enough to secure her fame and fortune. (Ann was unaware that outbreaks of malaria were extremely rare in the Allegheny Mountains. She is suffering from acute bouts of ague and malaria, which, combined, render it impossible for her to travel by bus.' 'Please excuse Ann from this week's field trip to the IXL Cottage Cheese Creamery. Sometimes, the performances were less effective. 'Please excuse Ann from gym this week she has contracted a virulent case of Norwegian Scabies.' Her first literary endeavors were modest-mostly confined to aphorisms scrawled on cracked pavement with colored chalk.īut as the years passed and her skills increased, she branched out into literary nonfiction-best exemplified by the abstracts that follow. From her early days, growing up on the western frontier of Pennsylvania, Ann McMan found creative ways to exercise her gift for fiction.

Jericho by ann mcman