Anndee Hochman writer & teacher
BOOKS
unexpected roads to form a family
Coming soon from Temple University Press, my collection of personal essays along with more than 40 of the "Parent Trip" columns I wrote over a ten-year period for the Philadelphia Inquirer--harrowing, wry and real stories of the infinite ways families become families. Lesléa Newman, author of Heather Has Two Mommies, calls the book "a love song to parents and children everywhere." Pre-order now or from your local bookstore!
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 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."
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“…In this book, Hochman redefines family in ways that are always refreshing and sometimes breathtaking.”
--Whitney Scott, Booklist
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."
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“A writer whose voice is needed in our discordant culture.”
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
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:
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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
reading grace paley: six weeks, six stories
Sunday, May 17-Sunday, June 21, 2026
2-4 p.m. EST
The late, great writer Grace Paley told an interviewer, "If you say what's on your mind in the language that comes to you from your parents and your street and your friends, you'll probably say something beautiful."
In this Zoom study group, we'll dive into the language, the culture and the world of six Paley stories, considering characters, settings, tensions, mysteries and revelations. Open to Paley devotees and those who are new to her work. Details and registration info here!
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.
Readings, events and book-signings!
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Thursday, March 5, 7 p.m. at Narberth Bookshop, Narberth, PA
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Thursday, March 19, 6:30 p.m. at Main Point Books, Wayne, PA
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Saturday, March 28, 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Exton, PA
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Thursday, April 9, 6 p.m. at Giovanni's Room, Philadelphia
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Monday, August 10, 7 p.m. at Annie Bloom's Books, Portland, OR
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out loud: storytelling for the page and stage
Poetry & Prose Getaway
Seaview, New Jersey
January 16-19, 2026
This happened--here's a glimpse of my dramatic participants--and was a resounding success, yielding stories-in-progress that were wry, tender, poignant and surprising. Hoping to reprise the experience at the 2027 Getaway!
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monthly; 1st or 2nd Tuesdays
Nearly every month, I join the hopeful storytellers who toss their names in the tote bag, eager for the chance to share a five-minute true tale on a theme selected in advance: CHEAT, FAMILY MATTERS, MASKS, LOVE HURTS. Sometimes I get picked. Every time, I'm moved by the oh-so-human experiences storytellers share onstage. Join us if you're in shouting distance of Philly.
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 terrific 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--hopefully, a sale to a publisher!
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."
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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
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(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!
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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
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