August 25, 2007
I have just come back from teaching a workshop on autobiography and autobiographical fiction in partnership with writer and activist Demetria Martinez at The Leaven Center in the Michigan countryside, located on the Grand River. (We are available and excited to do more, so contact me!) An extraordinary group of activists and writers gathered there for 5 days, and, in community, flourished. Their writing got to places they hadn’t expected, or hadn’t intended, and they had to face, collectively and individually, the truth, beauty, and power of their voices and their stories. I expect we’ll be back next year. Look into it, at www.Leaven.org –which is an amazing place for a retreat or writers’ workshop.
I will be in Albuqerque to participate in a cultural conference from August 31 through September 3, Dreaming Big: Cultural Activism, Writing, Education, and the Arts in the New Century. Please contact John Crawford or Leslie Fishburn Clark for more information at ABQconference2007@yahoo.com
I did a short interview about my novel-in-progress (working title: The History Artist) with Ethelbert Miller for the cultural section (Fiesta) of Foreign Policy in Focus, and it will appear right after Labor Day at www.fpif.org . Please do check out this worthwhile publication of the Institute for Policy Studies.
This fall, I will be doing a mentorship for a small group for SASE/Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis: Power, Possibility, and Polish: Dancing with the Essential Elements of Story Craft.
Just passing through, this posting, a stranger in town. When I return from the Albuquerque conference, expect a full story!
Peace, Anya
Praises to Grace Paley and Sekou Sundiata! Alabanza!
Anya Achtenberg 
How wonderful to hear about your activities! The workshop at The Leaven Center sounds like it was amazing.
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It definitely was. One striking thing about Leaven is that is has worked to become a place where disability is not an obstacle, and so I have met a number of disability activists there, and have learned so much from them, as well as enjoyed their company and everyone else’s. So many stories to tell about how the work of writing progressed through the retreat, and how people got closer and closer, to their stories, their gifts as writers, their characters, their own fullness, and each other. Inevitable, I say, with this kind of work. Demetria Martinez and I had worked together before, and after this amazing week, we are certain to work together again. What a wonderful and brilliant and down-to-earth teacher and writer she is. The word in the nearby forest was that we are quite a teaching team!
The river flows to this spot, the river flows beyond it, just like locating a story.
Peace,
Anya
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You amaze me with your whirlwind tours around the world, invigorating aspiring scribes. Oh to bask in the glow of your inspiration!
Alison Ross
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