Anndee Hochman writer & teacher
BOOKS
Everyday Acts & Small Subversions:
Women Reinventing Family, Community & Home
"At thirty, I was beginning to hunt for permanence...There was much I wanted to know: how to sustain friendships that felt 'like family' over time and distance. How to make choices about commitment and children. How to celebrate milestones, whom to gather at my table. How to balance tradition and invention, pull threads from my past and use them to weave a future."
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named one of the 100 Most Important Books of the 20th Century by Sojourner magazine
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“…In this book, Hochman redefines family in ways that are always refreshing and sometimes breathtaking.”
--Whitney Scott, Booklist
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“Anndee Hochman helps us to imagine the new possibilities for relationships, rituals and language that truly reflect the ways we live and love.”
--Barbara Findlen, Ms.
Outside In: 50 Years of Forging Change
A history of Outside In, the "odd little agency" in Portland, Oregon, that started as a free clinic in 1968 and morphed to a multi-service center with a $12.5 million budget and a legacy of radical, inclusive care.
Anatomies: A Novella and Stories
"We buried Hank’s umbilical stump in the back yard, in sight of the basketball hoop, spitting distance from where the cucumbers will be. Emmy donated the box from her first pair of real earrings, and we nestled the stump on the little mattress of cotton. It was about as big as my thumb."
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San Francisco Chronicle bestseller
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“A writer whose voice is needed in our discordant culture.”
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
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“Hochman deftly interweaves humor, crisp language, and evocative imagery throughout Anatomies…Her prose is arresting and beautiful.”
--Meg Daly, The Oregonian
teaching
I teach young people through:
- Young Audiences of NJ/PA
- artist residencies in public, charter and independent K-12 schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
In my classes and workshops—online or in person, with children, teens or adults—I foster a community of writers and readers who take creative risks, cherish differences and explore the transformative power of words.
For the past 30 years, I've taught memoir, poetry and creative non-fiction in schools, senior centers, youth and adult detention facilities, drug/alcohol rehabs, a village on Mexico's Pacific coast...and a Zoom screen near you!
I teach adults through:
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independent classes, workshops and ongoing groups (both virtual and in person!)
BIO
Anndee Hochman is a journalist, essayist and storyteller who listens intimately, questions fearlessly and writes frankly about people, families and communities. She pokes at big assumptions and cherishes small details. Anndee especially seeks voices on the margins, ideas that surprise and connect, stories that make it harder for us to dismiss each other.
She chases questions: What makes a family? What sustains a person, or a community? How do we stitch meaning from the scraps of daily life? When Anndee teaches writing to children and adults, they are also in search—looking inside and out for the sparks of a story and the tools to make them flicker.
Anndee's articles, profiles, political and personal essays and critical reviews have been published in Poets & Writers, O, the Oprah Magazine, Redbook, Health, OUT and The Journal of the American Medical Association. Her column, "The Parent Trip," appears weekly in The Philadelphia Inquirer, and she is a regular contributor to venues including Broad Street Review and WebMD. She's also a eight-time winner of Moth Story Slams and shared the first-place title in Philadelphia's December 2022 GrandSlam.
Anndee's newest project is a young adult novel, My Plural Is People. The first chapter was a winner of the Arch Street Press 2020 contest and was also long-listed for the Voyage YA First Chapters contest. Rewrites happening as we speak!
"Words link lives. As a writer and teacher, I use language to discover, remember, subvert and understand. I write, and the words change me. I go back into the glittering, broken world to listen some more."
upcoming gigs
UNCONTAINED: FINDING SHAPE FOR YOUR MEMOIR
A six-week Blue Stoop class in the Zoomiverse
Sundays 2-4 p.m. Eastern starting October 13
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Have a life story to tell, but you're not sure how to shape it? No worries; memoir is not one-size-fits-all. In this six-session class, you'll read, discuss and experiment with memoir in a variety of forms, including flash, fragmented, 2nd-person (the "you" form) and collaged. Beginning and more seasoned writers welcome! Details and registration info at Blue Stoop.
between the lines: reading jewish short stories
Gratz College Lifelong Learning
Mondays Oct. 14-Nov. 18, 6-8 p.m. EST on Zoom
Reading is typically a solitary venture. But when we explore and discuss stories together, each person brings their whole life to the table: their regrets, ambitions, insights and questions. We learn from each other. We might even change our minds. In this six-session class, we will read and talk about short stories from a range of contemporary Jewish writers including Grace Paley, Bernard Malamud and Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Each session will include a short writing prompt in conversation with the story and a chance to share your work aloud.
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Click Gratz Lifeling Learning site to register now!
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January 17-20, 2025
Stockton University, Galloway, NJ
So jazzed to be teaching my (first-ever) weekend-long storytelling workshop!
Everyone tells stories: teachers, preachers, toastmasters and ordinary folks swapping tales around the dinner table. In this workshop, you’ll learn the steps of crafting a five-minute story from your life experience in the style of Moth story slams.
We’ll watch and discuss examples of compelling stories told aloud, examining how writers create stakes, scenes and story arc—and how inflection, emotion, pacing and physical presence enhance their delivery. We’ll work on the page and on our feet, with in-class prompts and exercises to engage the mind, body and heart in the dynamic act of live, in-person storytelling. In a spirit of courage, experimentation and collaboration, we’ll support each other with thoughtful feedback along the way. Open to brand-new and seasoned storytellers. Scholarships available (general; for writers of color; for writers over age 60)!
My young adult novel-in-progress, first hammered out during National Novel Writing Month 2019, is getting some traction. I'll be working on it at the Cuttyhunk Island Writers' Residency in September and at the Highlights Foundation's Rainbow Retreat in October. If you're curious, read the first chapter in Voyage, a YA journal. That chapter was also long-listed for the 2020 & 2021 Voyage YA First Chapters Contests, and the whole book was a finalist for the 2021 Acheven Book Prize in YA Fiction sponsored by Regal House Publishing.
show us your wits: funny women surviving coronavirus by laughing through it
Edited by Silvia Bajardi, Leigh Anne Jasheway, Chika Ekemezie & Carmen Woodruff. Available now for Kindle or in paperback!
This anthology collects essays from women across the world who are coping with quarantine, social distancing, sex, partnership, parenting, teleworking, and a range of other COVID-19 challenges with a jigger of humor (and the occasional afternoon shot of something more potent). My piece is "Tuning Out, Zooming In."
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stained: an anthology of writing about menstruation
Editors Rachel Neve-Midbar & Jennifer Saunders
Proceeds benefit Days for Girls, which promotes menstrual equity, dignity and health worldwide
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(her)oics: women's lived experiences during the coronovirus pandemic
Edited by Amy Roost & Joanell Serra
Order it from Bookshop.org (independent booksellers) or directly from the press here!
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This collection includes essays by 52 women across the U.S. during COVID-19: front-line responders and recovering patients; women preparing to give birth, living with multiple generations, supporting the dying and grieving the loss of loved ones. My contribution, "Poetry in the Time of Coronavirus," won a 2020 American Society of Journalists and Authors award for personal essays. Order copies--for yourself or a gift-- directly from the press here!.
CONTACT
Ask me about writing gigs, speaking engagements, classes, workshops or readings.
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