She is the daughter of novelist Tony Hillerman and was married to photographer Don Strel who passed recently. Anne has served as arts editor and editorial page editor, as well as writer, for The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper and the Albuquerque Journal. Her first books were primarily about travel, local New Mexico points of interest, and restaurants. She and Strel collaborated on Santa Fe Flavors: Best Restaurants and Recipes and Gardens of Santa Fe.

Tony Hillerman, who died in 2008, was best known for his Leaphorn and Chee mystery novels. Tony Hillerman's Landscapes: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn was begun by Anne before his death, and includes his comments. With Anne gleaning locale details from her father's novels, and her husband taking the photographs, she intended it as a book to draw in readers of his novels, a guide for the reader to visualize the New Mexico and Arizona sites from the perspective of the two main protagonists Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.

After her father's death, Anne continued the Leaphorn and Chee series Spider Woman's Daughter which garnered the 2014 Spur Award for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America, and landed on the New York Times Best Seller list.