Andrea Barrett is the author of six novels, most recently The Air We Breathe published by Windmill 2009, and two collections of short fiction, Ship Fever, which received the 1996 National Book Award, and Servants of the Map, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

A fellow at the New York Public Library Centre for Scholars and Writers Barrett has received Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships.  She lives in North Adams, Massachusetts, with her husband and teaches at Williams College.