Anita Shreve (born 1946) is an
American writer. The daughter of an airline pilot and a homemaker, she graduated from
Dedham High School in Massachusetts, attended
Tufts University and began writing while working as a high school teacher in Reading, MA. One of her first published stories,
Past the Island, Drifting, (published in 1975) was awarded an
O. Henry Prize in 1976.