Frances Mayes is the author of three best-selling books about Italy. The number one New York Times best seller, Under the Tuscan Sun, remained on that list for over two years. It was followed by the memoir, Bella Tuscany, also an international best seller. These books are published in fourteen languages. In 2000, she published In Tuscany, a collaborative photo-text with Bob Krist and with her husband, the poet Edward Mayes. All three highly personal books are about taking chances, living in Italy, loving and renovating an old Italian villa, and the pleasures of food as well as the "voluptuousness of Italian life."

A widely published poet and essayist, Frances Mayes has written five books of poetry, most recently Ex Voto from Lost Roads Publishers. Her previous books of poetry are Sunday in Another Country, After Such Pleasures, The Arts of Fire, and Hours. She is also the author of The Discovery of Poetry, a college textbook published by Harcourt Brace Publishers.

Formerly Professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, where she directed The Poetry Center and chaired the Department of Creative Writing, Mayes now devotes herself full time to writing. Her first novel, Swan, is being published by Broadway Books in October 2002. Ms. Mayes is the editor for the 2002 Best American Travel Writing. She and her husband continue to divide their year between San Francisco and Cortona, Italy. Under the Tuscan Sun is currently in production as a major motion picture, featuring actress Diane Lane.