Olive Ann Burns was an American writer from Georgia, best remembered for her single completed novel, Cold Sassy Tree, published in 1984. Burns was a professional writer, journalist, and columnist for most of her life. She published two novels, one posthumously, and for many years was a staff writer for Atlanta newspapers and the Atlanta Journal Magazine. Her most notable achievement, Cold Sassy Tree, vividly describes rural southern life and a young boy's coming-of-age at the turn of the century.