She grew up in a family of four children in West Flanders and went on to pursue Germanic studies at the linked universities of Kortrijk and Leuven.

During this time, she started contributing to Belgian and American children's newspapers and also wrote her first novel, My Aunt is a Pilot Whale (1991), which is set in the USA.

[3] Anne Provoost is counted as a novelist for young adults and her stories are usually related by youngsters from their slightly puzzled point of view.

In the Shadow of the Ark (2001) is an account of the biblical story of Noah told from the perspective of a teenage girl who was not chosen to survive the deluge.

Both these take a critical look at the traditional religious mind-set, a theme she has taken further in her essay Beloved Unbelievers: Atheist Sermon (2008), in which she makes a plea for organisation in the face of right-wing Christian fundamentalism.