Anissa Gray

Writing Coach

Anissa Gray is the author of two novels published by Penguin Random House praised by the New York Times for her beautiful prose and stories about family, love and loss. She is an award-winning journalist whose work has been featured in Washington Post, CNN, and The Cut.

Anissa Gray is the author of two novels. Her most recent, Life and Other Love Songs, was named a most anticipated book by Time, Essence, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution in 2023. In its review, The New York Times said, “Life and Other Love Songs is a precisely observed, often beautiful book about family, love, loss and the hidden history that shapes lives…The prose is beautiful and poignant.”

Anissa’s debut, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls, was one of the most anticipated reads of 2019 from Vogue, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Bustle, and Cosmo. Care and Feeding was also named an Indie Next pick, Library Reads pick, and Barnes & Noble Discover pick as well as a Marie Claire 2019 book club selection. Additionally, the novel has been optioned for television.

Along with being a novelist, Anissa is also an award-winning journalist. She began her career as a print reporter for Reuters before shifting to broadcast news, where she has worked in various roles at CNN Worldwide for more than two decades. Anissa’s work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Cut and other publications. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA with her family and is at work on her third novel.

As someone who came to novel writing later in life without mentors in the industry, Anissa takes tremendous joy in helping writers of all ages, from all walks of life, hone their craft.

There are countless ways to tell a story, but no one can tell your stories like you. It’s a matter of finding your voice, which can take time. But you can get there. Keep writing.

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Anissa Gray

The Critically Acclaimed Author with a Most Anticipated Book by TIME

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

Novels by

Anissa Gray

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

The Butler family has had their share of trials—as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest—but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives.

Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband, Proctor, are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened.

As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters. What unfolds is a stunning portrait of the heart and core of an American family in a story that is as page-turning as it is important.

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Life and Other Love Songs

It’s a warm, bright October afternoon, and Ozro Armstead walks out into the brilliant sunshine on his thirty-seventh birthday. At home, his wife Deborah and daughter Trinity prepare a surprise celebration; down the street, his brother waves as Oz heads back to his office after having lunch together.

But he won’t make it to the party or even to his briefcase back at his desk. He's about to disappear.

In the days, months, and years to follow, Deborah and Trinity look backward and forward as they piece together the life of the man they love, but whom they come to realize they might never have truly known.

In a gripping narrative that moves from the Great Migration to 1970s Detroit and 1990s New York, we follow the hopes, triumphs, losses, and secrets that build up and tear apart an American family.

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