Anne Gridley was born and raised in Sioux Falls, SD.
She attended Longfellow Elementary School and Patrick Henry Middle School.
She graduated from Lincoln High School.
At Lincoln, Anne was active in the French Club and Drama Club, in both
of which she served as an officer. She was active in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Oral Interpretation.
She and her partner, Jenny Dempster, participated in the National Forensic League National Tournament in St. Louis, MO.
She was also a member of the Lincoln High School Concert Choir.
Anne has had a strong devotion to the creative arts and was active in the
Sioux Falls, Community Playhouse for many years. She has appeared in over a dozen productions.
At summer theatre camp between her 9th and l0th grades, she and her campmates wrote and produced a play,
"Kiss Today Goodbye," which they performed at the Sioux Falls Community Playhouse, at a national convention of drama teachers and
coaches in Minneapolis, and at a Youth Theater Festival in Postdam, Germany.
This fall, 1998 Anne is enrolled at Bard College in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where she will combine her interests in theatre and writing.
In her Senior Scrapbook she wrote:
"I never thought that I was a writer. My mom was the writer of the family, not me.
But I entered the NCTE contest anyway, without any expectations. And I won.
I didn't think I would, since I thought I had done poorly on the writing prompt
. . . now everyone wants me to be a writer. 'So, Anne, are you going to be like
Matt Damon and write award winning screenplays?' I mean, I might try to combine the two, but I prefer writing for myself.
It is nice to have this award, and to be given the South Dakota Young Author Award, too.
I just don't want all that expectation that comes along with it. Because now
if I write anything, it has to be 'award winning' material, and, well, sometimes I write less
meritorious stuff. Maybe I am a writer, but I'm not perfect."