D'anna was born in
Steinbach,
Manitoba, and currently resides in
Winnipeg. She was a finalist for the John Hirsch Most Promising Manitoba Writer Award in 1992 following the publication of her first novel,
sing me no more, published by
Press Gang Publishers under her birth-name,
Dueck. Her second novel,
RagTimeBone, a coming-of-age story for young adults published by New Star Books, is also available in German, translated and published as
Zeit der Blöße by Argument Verlag (Hamburg) in 2000. Her first three books—
sing me no more,
RagTimeBone and ''fool's bells
—form a thematic trilogy. Her fourth, Belly Fruit
, is an erotic murder-mystery published by New Star Books in 2000. Her final novel, vixen'', published in 2001 by Pedlar Press, an imprint of
Insomniac Press, challenges sexual norms, and examines the themes of memory and thought censorship. D'anna is a graduate of creative communications with a journalism major. She was a regular contributor to
Zygote magazine, a feature columnist at
Interchange, and has contributed to a large number of literary journals and newspapers during the course of her career. As managing editor of the ''Canadian Women's Health Network Magazine'', she facilitated the production of two special issues on Diversity and Women's Health. She is past-president of Prairie Fire Press board of directors, mentor to emerging writers both privately and in the Manitoba Writers Guild Mentor Program, and awards jurist for the
Manitoba Arts Council. Over the course of her writing career, her work has been recognized with awards from the
Canada Council for the Arts, the B.C. Arts Council and the Manitoba Arts Council. D'anna is considered an important figure in Queer
Mennonite literature and has been described by Daniel Shank Cruz as "the godmother of queer Mennonite literature." ==Bibliography==