A die-hard New Yorker, Ann Rower has always lived, worked, and written in and around the city. She is the author of If You're a Girl, a collection of short stories; and Armed Response and Lee & Elaine, both novels. Rower has contributed to periodicals such as BOMB, Journal of Contemporary Fiction, and High Risk 2. She has also worked for the innovative Wooster theatre group and other performance groups.

Rower taught writing for decades at the School of Visual Arts. For her work, she received several awards and honors. Rower got a Jules and Avery Hopwood Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Gary Carey Award from the Humanities and Sciences Department at the School of Visual Arts.