Who is Ann Patchett from Truth & Beauty: A Friendship and what is their importance?

Ann Patchett was the narrator of this book. She was a young woman who graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. She was accepted into the prestigious Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa. The summer before school started, Ann traveled out to Iowa to find housing for the school year. She found housing for both herself and a young woman she knew from Sarah Lawrence named Lucy Grealy. From the start of living together, Ann and Lucy built a lifelong friendship.