Anne is an acclaimed playwright, author and lecturer. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a 2005-06 Guggenheim Fellowship and a New Harmony Dramatists Fellowship.

Her books and articles have been published widely and her play THE GUYS, one of the first major plays to address the September 11th attacks, has been published and staged throughout the world over the past four years, starring actors such as Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Swoosie Kurtz, Helen Hunt, Dan Lauria, and Bill Irwin. It premiered at The Flea Theater on White Street not far from the site of the World Trade Center. Nelson adapted the play for a film version directed by Jim Simpson that starred Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia.

Her most recent play, SAVAGES, premiered Off-Broadway at the Lion Theater in NY in 2006. Her book, MURDER UNDER TWO FLAGS, was adapted into the feature film, SHOW OF FORCE, starring Robert Duvall and Kevin Spacey.

In addition to her theatrical pursuits, she was an award-winning reporter on the conflicts in Central America and the Philippines. As a war correspondent in El Salvador and Guatemala from 1980 to 1983, her reports and combat photography appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and many other publications.