Anissa Gray was born and raised in western Michigan, where her father pastored a Pentecostal church and her mother was a homemaker. She graduated from Western Michigan University and received her Masters in English from New York University. After graduate school, Anissa worked as a print reporter at Reuters in Manhattan, covering global financial news. She later moved to Atlanta, where she began her career in broadcast journalism at CNN. At CNN, she held roles as writer, editor, and producer, receiving Emmy and duPont awards for her contributions to the network’s coverage of major stories.

After more than 20 years as a journalist, Anissa, a lifelong book lover and voracious reader, pursued fiction writing.