If this were strictly The Modern Marketplace, there might be pop-ups announcing two-for-one deals on workshops, or guarantees of massive book sales for your first novel. Instead, read what my students and clients say about the freeing of language and voice, and the depth of discovery of story and character, which they have experienced in their work with me, whether in classes and workshops, or one to one manuscript consultations, or coaching sessions to explore what holds them back and what propels them forward in this labor of love.
Some of the writers have spoken to me of the spiraling into knowledge of the way story works; some have reminded me again and again that they have stepped over some profound fear or shame that kept them from writing or valuing their work. Others have done what they thought impossible: finished a book. What follows are Testimonials as to how they think their writing has benefited from our work; sometimes the results are so dramatic, the word Breakthrough is appropriate.
Snippets from testimonials:
Working with Anya has forever changed my relationship to writing, pulling it from deep in my unconscious up into the light of inquiry. … Since I have been working with Anya I appreciate the infinite complexity and richness of working with words, and writing has become the most intellectually challenging thing I have ever encountered. The joy I now get from my relationship to my craft is immense.
– Annie Lewis — Santa Fe, NM
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.
– Amy Fisher — Wildlife Biologist
It is rare to find a teacher who is not only expert in the technical aspects of writing, but who has a deep appreciation of literature and literary theory, and who is a terrific muse. Anya puts her heart into her teaching.
– Dora Wang, M.D. — Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Somehow, your Big Apple teaching let me into the room of myself with all the lights turned on. What feels most remarkable is that now, months afterward, I feel certain I won’t let my light go out again. The illumination has lasted-thus, not a workshop high, but a new way of being. You unlocked the armor and flung open the portals to honoring my fullness, and gave me handles and toeholds to access and develop it in new ways.
– Marilise Tronto, Representative to the United Nations of The International Women’s Writing Guild
Anya Achtenberg 