The Shape of Wind on Water is Ann Fox Chandonnet's substantial collection of new and selected poems, some from her rural childhood in Massachusetts, and many from her thirty-four years in Alaska. Place has always been important to her. In 1968, her first book of poems was published in Madison, Wisc. In the following years, she wrote two cookbooks, four food histories, and a tourist guide to the Panhandle. She also founded the Literary Artists Guild of Alaska.

Ann Fox Chandonnet grew up on a 180-acre apple and dairy farm in Dracut, Mass. Then there were four years in California, followed by a rich life indoors and out in Alaska. She has worked as an English teacher in Kodiak, Alaska, and a police reporter in Juneau. Chandonnet has two grown sons and three lovely granddaughters. She and her husband of fifty-six years are "retired" to Lake St. Louis, Missouri, where they share Ann's rescue dog, Gypsy Rose.