An-Li Herring is a freelance journalist based in Pittsburgh, currently working on two narrative nonfiction books. One is about the Pennsylvania city of New Kensington, where the aluminum industry was born. Though a casualty of the post-industrial decline that swept across much of the Rust Belt beginning in the 1970s, New Kensington has since attracted investment from a diverse collection of industry, nonprofit and grassroots backers. An-Li's book will show what happens when major investors and a community take a chance on a city decades after its fall from industrial might.

The second book is a collaboration with a man who spent nearly four decades in prison after being incarcerated at age 14 and sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole. A Pennsylvania court ordered the man's release following a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that required states to revisit mandatory life sentences for juveniles. The book will be the man's memoir.

An-Li began both of her book projects in the fall of 2023. She previously reported for six years at Pittsburgh's NPR station, WESA, where she built a business and economics beat while also covering law and government.

Before becoming a reporter, she completed her law degree at Stanford. In law school, she took a journalism class that compelled her to change career paths. The fun of storytelling was irresistible and has stuck with her.