Ann M. Martin

After teaching, Martin decided to pursue publishing. She worked her way up from an editorial assistant to a senior editor, and she worked for several well-known children’s book publishers, including Pocket Books and Scholastic. She is now a full-time writer.

Martin currently maintains a fairly quiet public profile. After living in New York City for many years, Martin moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, where she enjoys nature and fostering kittens. Martin posts semi-regular updates and snapshots of her life on her Facebook page. She stays busy with author appearances and adaptations of her works such as the Babysitters' Club Club graphic novels and network series. Martin quietly came out as queer in 2016. She was previously in a relationship with Laura Godwin, with whom she wrote the four Doll People books.

After graduating from Smith College, Martin taught in a split fourth and fifth-grade classroom at Plumfield School in Noroton, Connecticut. Her students, ages 8–13, struggled with learning disabilities including dyslexia and autism. Martin said that her work with special needs children influenced her writing about children.

In 1990, Martin and her colleagues founded "The Lisa Libraries" to honor and memorialize their friend Lisa Novak. This non-profit organization distributes new books to children and establishes libraries in under-served areas. In the same year, Martin also founded the Ann M. Martin Foundation, which provides financial support for art, education, and literacy programs in addition to programs for abused and stray animals.

35 volumes to 1990, continued by other writers with Martin

In 1983, she published her first book, Bummer Summer, which earned the Children’s Choice Award in 1985. She began writing The Baby-Sitters Club series in 1985 while working for Scholastic as a children’s book editor. After Martin wrote the first 35 novels in The Baby-Sitters Club series she has since concentrated on writing single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s. One of those novels, A Corner of the Universe, won a Newbery Honor in 2003. In 2010, Martin published a prequel to The Baby-Sitters Club series titled The Summer Before.

After graduating from Princeton High School in 1973, Martin attended Smith College from 1973-1977. She studied early-childhood education and child psychology. Her senior thesis was on the use of children’s literature in the classroom. She lived in Gardiner House and wrote for Smith College newspaper, The Sophian. Describing her Smith education, Martin said “It was an environment of strong, independent women, both the students and the professors.” Her time at Smith influenced her identity as a feminist and inspired her to portray female characters who were like the women she knew in her own life.

Ann Matthews Martin (born August 12, 1955) is an American children's fiction writer, known best for The Baby-Sitters Club series.

Ann Matthews Martin grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. Her mother, Edith, was a pre-school teacher and her father, Henry, was a cartoonist for The New Yorker and other publications. Her mother's ancestry can be traced back to the pilgrims who traveled on the Mayflower in 1620. She had one younger sister, Jane.