Anndee Hochman writer & teacher
BOOKS
Everyday Acts & Small Subversions:
Women Reinventing Family, Community & Home
"At thirty, I was beginning to hunt for permanence...There was much I wanted to know: how to sustain friendships that felt 'like family' over time and distance. How to make choices about commitment and children. How to celebrate milestones, whom to gather at my table. How to balance tradition and invention, pull threads from my past and use them to weave a future."
-
named one of the 100 Most Important Books of the 20th Century by Sojourner magazine
-
“…In this book, Hochman redefines family in ways that are always refreshing and sometimes breathtaking.”
--Whitney Scott, Booklist
-
“Anndee Hochman helps us to imagine the new possibilities for relationships, rituals and language that truly reflect the ways we live and love.”
--Barbara Findlen, Ms.
Outside In: 50 Years of Forging Change
A history of Outside In, the "odd little agency" in Portland, Oregon, that started as a free clinic in 1968 and morphed to a multi-service center with a $12.5 million budget and a legacy of radical, inclusive care.
Anatomies: A Novella and Stories
"We buried Hank’s umbilical stump in the back yard, in sight of the basketball hoop, spitting distance from where the cucumbers will be. Emmy donated the box from her first pair of real earrings, and we nestled the stump on the little mattress of cotton. It was about as big as my thumb."
-
San Francisco Chronicle bestseller
-
“A writer whose voice is needed in our discordant culture.”
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
-
“Hochman deftly interweaves humor, crisp language, and evocative imagery throughout Anatomies…Her prose is arresting and beautiful.”
--Meg Daly, The Oregonian
teaching
I teach young people through:
- Young Audiences of NJ/PA
- artist residencies in public, charter and independent K-12 schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
In my classes and workshops—online or in person, with children, teens or adults—I foster a community of writers and readers who take creative risks, cherish differences and explore the transformative power of words.
For the past 30 years, I've taught memoir, poetry and creative non-fiction in schools, senior centers, youth and adult detention facilities, drug/alcohol rehabs, a village on Mexico's Pacific coast...and a Zoom screen near you!
I teach adults through:
-
independent classes, workshops and ongoing groups (both virtual and in person!)
BIO
Anndee Hochman is a journalist, essayist and storyteller who listens intimately, questions fearlessly and writes frankly about people, families and communities. She pokes at big assumptions and cherishes small details. Anndee especially seeks voices on the margins, ideas that surprise and connect, stories that make it harder for us to dismiss each other.
She chases questions: What makes a family? What sustains a person, or a community? How do we stitch meaning from the scraps of daily life? When Anndee teaches writing to children and adults, they are also in search—looking inside and out for the sparks of a story and the tools to make them flicker.
Anndee's articles, profiles, political and personal essays and critical reviews have been published in Broad Street Review, Poets & Writers, O, the Oprah Magazine, Redbook, Health, OUT and The Journal of the American Medical Association. Her column, "The Parent Trip," appeared weekly in The Philadelphia Inquirer from 2014 to 2023; a collection of those columns and personal essays on parenting will be published in early 2026 by Temple University Press. Anndee is also a ten-time winner of Moth Story Slams and shared the first-place title in Philadelphia's December 2022 GrandSlam.
Anndee's newest project is a young adult novel, My Plural Is People, now repped by an astute agent at East West Literary and undergoing a final set of rewrites this summer! The first chapter won the Arch Street Press 2020 contest and was also long-listed for the Voyage YA First Chapters contest.
"Words link lives. As a writer and teacher, I use language to discover, remember, subvert and understand. I write, and the words change me. I go back into the glittering, broken world to listen some more."
upcoming gigs
due February 2026
Temple University Press
Frank, hilarious, harrowing and real stories of 42 exuberantly diverse families and how they came to be. Parent Trip: Unexpected Roads to Form a Family includes a selection of my long-running "Parent Trip" columns from the Philadelphia Inquirer, woven with my personal essays about the indelible, unpredictable journey of parenthood.
Watch this space for news about book launch events, readings and signings!
i
a paragraph. Click here
try it: a free people & stories session!
Thursday, September 18, 6:30-8 p.m. on Zoom
Read stories. Talk about them. Change your mind. That's the mantra of People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos, a non-profit that brings literature to life for people from all backgrounds. Check out a free session on Thursday, September 18 in the Zoom room; I'll read aloud "Two Words" by Isabel Allende, and then we'll discuss it, bringing everyone's experience, curiosities and insights to the table. Join us. Light refreshments and all materials provided! Register right here.
with new eyes: deep revision in any genre
Blue Stoop
Mondays Oct. 13-December 8 (9 weeks), 6-8 p.m.
in the Zoom room!
Deep revision isn't about wielding a red pen; it's about listening for the thrumming heart of a piece, asking big questions and reimagining voice, structure and language to give that piece maximum impact. Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, memoir or poetry, you'll learn tools and strategies for reflecting on your own writing, returning to it with fresh eyes and making it sing!
8
Click HERE for preview information; full registration details to come in September!
Re
I'
out loud: storytelling for the page and stage
Poetry & Prose Getaway
Seaview, New Jersey
January 16-19, 2026
I'm delighted to reprise my weekend-long storytelling workshop at the 2026 annual Getaway. Whether you have the impulse to tell life stories on a Moth stage, in the workplace or at the dinner table, you'll learn and practice ways of using detail, pacing, voice and body to create pieces with energy and impact. Registration details here; scholarships available; discounts for signing up early or bringing a first-timer to the Getaway.
8
As a special add-on, I'll teach a 2-hour intro to memoir and creative nonfiction. Details here!
m a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
and...news on my YA novel, My plural is people!
Thrilled to report that I recently signed with East West Literary Agency, a wonderful boutique (read: small) agency that publishes mostly for young readers, including the Jacob series about a gender non-conforming kid. So grateful to the sisterhood of the Revisionistas, along with compatriots and instructors at the Cuttyhunk Island Writers' Residency and the Highlights Foundation, for substantive critique and invaluable company. If you're curious, read an earlier version of the novel's first chapter in Uncharted, a YA journal. I'll keep you posted on what happens next!
show us your wits: funny women surviving coronavirus by laughing through it
Edited by Silvia Bajardi, Leigh Anne Jasheway, Chika Ekemezie & Carmen Woodruff. Available now for Kindle or in paperback!
This anthology collects essays from women across the world who are coping with quarantine, social distancing, sex, partnership, parenting, teleworking, and a range of other COVID-19 challenges with a jigger of humor (and the occasional afternoon shot of something more potent). My piece is "Tuning Out, Zooming In."
.jpg)
stained: an anthology of writing about menstruation
Editors Rachel Neve-Midbar & Jennifer Saunders
Proceeds benefit Days for Girls, which promotes menstrual equity, dignity and health worldwide
oics%20cover.jpg)
(her)oics: women's lived experiences during the coronovirus pandemic
Edited by Amy Roost & Joanell Serra
Order it from Bookshop.org (independent booksellers) or directly from the press here!
Re
This collection includes essays by 52 women across the U.S. during COVID-19: front-line responders and recovering patients; women preparing to give birth, living with multiple generations, supporting the dying and grieving the loss of loved ones. My contribution, "Poetry in the Time of Coronavirus," won a 2020 American Society of Journalists and Authors award for personal essays. Order copies--for yourself or a gift-- directly from the press here!.
CONTACT
Ask me about writing gigs, speaking engagements, classes, workshops or readings.
Join the mailing list to read my newest essays and learn about upcoming workshops and events!
Follow me:
