Ashna Graves

Mystery writer Ashna Graves came into being on a warm June afternoon in 1997, and owes her existence to an extended illness, a nice chair in a garden and an empty yellow legal pad. She was born in Santa Fe to restless, bookish parents who moved her and two brothers all over the West. She continued to be a nomad far into adulthood, adding countries and continents to her wanderings. In 1989, Ashna began teaching college journalism, then moved to the university’s humanities research center, where she was made associate director in 2003. She has continued to travel; to Argentina and Taiwan, and to spend time in the emptier regions of the American West with her botanist companion, who is also her best reader and advisor on the how’s and why’s of violent crime in a region of unsurpassed natural beauty. Like her heroine, Ashna lives quietly in an old house within walking distance of her office.