About

“Anya is a master teacher. Her grasp of world writers and of craft allows her to liberate this knowledge for those of us outside the academy, so that we can learn to wield the pen with power… [her] visionary workshops on writing for social change have received national acclaim. Achtenberg is a cutting-edge voice in the literature of the post-globalization age.”

Demetria Martinez, poet, fiction writer, journalist, activist, and author of the novel, Mother Tongue; Confessions of a Berlitz Tape Chicana: Collected Columns; and many more.

Hi, I’m Anya Achtenberg.

I am an award winning author of fiction and poetry, and a long-time teacher of fiction, creative nonfiction/memoir, poetry, and hybrid works.

My fiction and poetry have received numerous prizes and distinctions and been published in numerous literary journals. Published so far are my novel Blue Earth, novella The Stories of Devil-Girl, two books of poetry–The Stone of Language, and I Know What the Small Girl Knew. Articles and essays on craft are published, and forthcoming. I am currently completing another novel, History Artist, and another book of poetry, Matadors at the Crossing. These manuscripts have various individual pieces published and performed.

My teaching and essays on writing craft go beyond writing conventions to develop creatively expansive and inclusive approaches reflecting the profound experiences and histories of communities that are diasporic and dislodged, disenfranchised, in resistance.

I have taught in person through universities, writer’s organizations, the public schools, writer’s conferences, as mentor and teacher in various community organizations, for progressive faith-based centers, with groups of activists, and privately. My extensive online teaching has reached more than 60 countries and thousands of students to-date. Along with my numerous fiction, memoir, and multi-genre workshops in The Disobedient Writer Workshop Series, I offer a number of workshops, also multi-genre, in my Writing for Social Change: Re-Dream a Just World Workshop Series, helping writers expand their craft and creativity while exploring social justice issues, and the ways that creative writing craft, and concepts of justice, are intimately connected. My individual work with a great range of writers, a number of whom had come from conditions of extremity, has helped bring many manuscripts to completion, as well as to publication, prizes and distinctions.

I am also an organizer of arts and history-focused multicultural journeys to Cuba.

Interested in working with me, or wanting more information? Contact me here.