The Disobedient Writer

I’m an award-winning author of fiction and poetry, and a long-time teacher of fiction, memoir and poetry. This website is certainly where you might see what I’ve been up to; but, just as much, it is a place to support you in taking steps in your own work, and to know that there is community of others doing the same. With the jolting changes we are experiencing, this is a place to think together, a place to re-examine our writing, our focus, our writing’s responsiveness to the world. 

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Self-study courses

These writing courses will help you expand your creativity and strengthen your writer’s voice. Get writing and keep writing! Contact me if you have any questions. Break the rules and free your story A guide to taking your fiction writing and memoir writing beyond the same old formula and telling unforgettable stories Claiming Our Stories,… Continue reading Self-study courses

Writers’ services

I offer consultations, manuscript critiques, and craft study for individuals and groups.

If my house were burning down, I would grab artwork, my book, and the notebooks I wrote in Anya’s classes. If you’re looking for an average writing teacher or editor, go elsewhere. Anya resides in the upper stratosphere of creativity and, if you let her, will lift your writing to heights you never dreamed possible. I won the 2006 New Mexico Discovery Award, first prize in non-fiction, for a story I began in Anya’s class. I divide my writing into two phases: pre-Anya and post-Anya. There is no comparison.

Amy Fisher

The best thing I did was study writing with Anya Achtenberg for several years. She was able to bring me back to writing, gently. She is a nurturing teacher and compassionate as well as keen reader. She is truly gifted in both writing and teaching-a rare combination, one that should be embraced as well as celebrated. My writing shined with Anya, her insights there to illuminate it.

Jennifer Ruden