Mary McGarry Morris was educated at Mount Saint Joseph Academy in Rutland, the University of Vermont, and the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. Her first novel, Vanished, was nominated for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award; her novel A Dangerous Woman was chosen by Time magazine as one of the Five Best Novels of the Year; and her novel Songs in Ordinary Time was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection and was a New York Times bestseller. She lives in Massachusetts.