Anne Rivers Siddons was born Sybil Anne Rivers on January 9, 1936, in Atlanta, Georgia, and was raised in Fairburn, Georgia. She attended Auburn University, where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority. While at Auburn, she wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman, that favored integration. The university administration attempted to suppress the column and ultimately fired her, which garnered national attention.

Anne later became a senior editor for Atlanta magazine. At the age of thirty, she married Heyward Siddons. The couple lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and spent summers in Maine. Anne Rivers Siddons was an American novelist renowned for her stories set in the southern United States. She passed away from lung cancer on September 11, 2019.