Anaïs Mitchell is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. She has released eight studio albums throughout her career, including Hadestown (2010), Young Man in America (2012), Child Ballads (2013), and Anaïs Mitchell (2022).
named after: Anaïs Nin
labels: Righteous Babe Records
genres: indie folk, traditional folk music
awards: Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theatre, Tony Award for Best Original Score
plays: guitar
member of: Bonny Light Horseman
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Mitchell's father, a novelist and college professor, named her after author Anaïs Nin. She grew up on Treleven farm in Addison County, Vermont and graduated from Mount Abraham Union High School. She was raised Quaker. Her mother was Deputy Secretary of Vermont's Agency of Human Services. After traveling to the Middle East, Europe and Latin America as a child, she attended Middlebury College, where she majored in political science and graduated in 2004.
She began writing her first songs at the age of 17, around 1998. Just five years later Mitchell won the New Folk award in 2003, when she was 22, at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Her album Hymns for the Exiled was released on Chicago's Waterbug Records label in 2004. This recording attracted the attention of singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, who signed her to the Righteous Babe Records label.
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