Understanding story focus through the lens of exclusion and inclusion

November 11, 2020September 4, 2023 Anya Achtenberg

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

All my workshops listed here–see new series: Say it! Dígalo!: The NEW! Standalone Write-Together Workshop Series launched January 2026, with Anya Achtenberg (Workshop Series Three)

Whether you are a member of a writing group or connected with a literary or educational institution, contact me to arrange a writing workshop in your area or online.

Writers’ services

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

Anya teaches the craft of writing in a gentle, non-threatening, supportive way, dosed with humor. I feel so fortunate to have found her!

Brenda Weihl

After each [workshop I’ve attended with Anya], I’ve returned to my writings with newly learned and reinforced dimensions – to shape more fully, delve more deeply, to narrate my truth, what happens, what makes us, what makes us tell.