Annie Ward

Annie’s third novel and second psychological thriller THE LYING CLUB will be released by Harper Collins/Park Row books in March 2022.

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Her previous novel BEAUTIFUL BAD was published in seventeen foreign territories, nominated for best debut mystery novel at the Strand Magazine Critics Awards in 2019 and optioned by Warner Brothers for feature film development.

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Annie received a BA in English Lit with an emphasis in Creative Writing from UCLA and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute. While studying at AFI, she sold her first short screenplay to MTV/ BFCS Productions. Starring Adam Scott and Joey Lauren Adams, STRANGE HABIT became a Grand Jury Award Winner at the Aspen Film Festival and a Sundance Festival Official Selection.

After film school, Annie moved to Eastern Europe to work for Fodor Travel Guides, covering regions of Spain and Bulgaria. She remained in Bulgaria for five years spanning a civilian uprising and government overthrow. Her first novel THE MAKING OF JUNE, which Annie wrote with the Bulgarian revolution and Balkan crisis as its backdrop was sold to Penguin Putnam and published to critical acclaim in 2002.

During Annie’s five years in the Balkans she received a Fulbright Scholarship, taught at the University of Sofia, and script doctored eight screenplays for Nu-Image, an Israeli/American film company that produced a number of projects in Bulgaria for the SyFy Channel. She was later the recipient of an Escape to Create artist residency.

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In addition to writing, she has worked as a cocktail server, tutor, PE teacher, soccer and gymnastics coach, and publicity assistant in a major publishing house.

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Home base is Kansas City.