Frances de Pontes Peebles was born in Recife, Brazil and raised in Miami, Florida. In 2000, she received a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and, in 2003, an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. After graduating from the Workshop, Peebles was awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Program, Brazil's Sacatar Foundation, and the Michener-Copernicus Society. Her short stories have appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories Anthology 2005, Zoetrope: All Story, The Indiana Review, and Missouri Review. In 2008, her debut novel, The Seamstress, received the Elle Grand Prix for Fiction.In 2009, Peebles and her husband returned to Brazil to manage her family's farm, where they grow shade-coffee, bananas, cashews, and many native fruits. They also raise goats, pigs, and cater to the whims of seven spoiled dogs.