Anne was born in San Jose, California, where she wasted her childhood playing Nintendo and watching The Facts of Life. Eventually, she went off to Princeton where she learned many important things, including how to recognize a kumquat. Four years and a useless degree later, she landed a job at Random House, where she promptly got bored and applied to graduate school, trained for a marathon, and reminisced about her days as a competitive finswimmer. A few years later, a blond guy showed up at her door with power tools and gazpacho. They live in Brooklyn. An editor by day, she enjoys bad horror movies, good cheese, and Count Chocula.

 

May grew up in Panama City, Florida, otherwise known as the Redneck Riviera. She graduated from Baylor University in Waco, TX and went on to earn her MA in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. After living in Brooklyn for four years and working at Random House as an Assistant Editor, Vanderbilt moved to fabulous San Francisco, putting an end to her long tour of undesirable cities. May is a Southern girl who is always on the search for decent grits in the Bay Area and makes artisanal cheese at home.

 

We met in 2002 when we were hired to be editorial assistants at Random House. May joked about having dated too many preachers’ sons, Anne commiserated, and a friendship was born. It’s not easy being a Christian in New York, and having support in the office was key.

People always ask us what it’s like to write with someone else. The answer: amazing. We bounce ideas off each other, help each other, and edit each other. We struggle together to create something new.

We’ve been through a lot in the years we’ve known each other, but as our lives change, one thing has always remained the same. We are friends first, writing partners second.