Joan Anderson

Joan Anderson is author of a number of children’s books and several best-selling memoirs: A Year By the Sea, An Unfinished Marriage, A Walk on the Beach, A Weekend to Change Your Life, and The Second Journey. She is a frequent lecturer on women’s topics at conferences throughout the country and runs Weekend by the Sea programs on Cape Cod and at retreats worldwide.

Joan Anderson attended Colby Sawyer College and Yale University School of Drama before beginning her writing career as a stringer reporter for the Gannett newspaper chain. As she practiced her craft, she moved on to photo essay books for children. She later wrote Breaking the TV Habit, a forerunner of No-TV Week in schools throughout the country, before embarking on the personal journey that would lead to her success as a memoir writer.

This journey happened quite by accident after she lived for a year by the sea on her own and realized that there was something in the experience worth writing about. Anderson and her popular memoirs have since gotten much attention, including appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today Show, and Good Morning America.

Her book A Year By the Sea was made into a film starring Karen Allen.