Hi, I’m Annette.
I’m a writer and writing instructor, specializing in memoir. I teach others how to write stories from their family history through my online courses, books, and in-person workshops.
Exploring my family history changed my life. When I visited the Czech Republic in 2002, I felt so at home wandering the streets of my grandparents’ hometown, even though I had never been there before. I sensed so many undercurrents that I began to dig into the family history. While I have always written to understand my life, this trip sent me on the journey to become a writer. It was the seedling for my memoir Jumping Over Shadows and for learning how to write an interesting story based on family history, and eventually, for teaching others how to do the same.
My Books
“…a treasure chest of advice for any nonfiction writer.”
“Having read other books on writing memoir, I found this book the best at keeping it simple and clear while giving creative suggestions.”
“I’m gathering info about my family history by doing weekly Skype sessions with my parents, and I am trying not to panic about how I will turn this into a book later. This book gave me a lot of great ideas and a way forward.”
“A book that is hard to put down.”
“In this extraordinary work, Annette Gendler illuminates the borders and meeting points between Judaism and Christianity, Germans and Jews, American Jews and Israeli Jews. Writing with eloquent precision, she reminds us why converts to Judaism are among the most precious gifts to the Jewish people. This book confirms Annette Gendler as an indispensable Jewish voice for our time.”
Newsletter
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Latest Posts
Tykocin – Where the Simple Baroque Synagogue of 1642 is the Lone Survivor of Centuries of Jewish Life
Meet the town of Tykocin in northeast Poland, a shtetl if there ever was one. Tykocin is pretty much as it was in August 1941, when German Einsatzgruppen obliterated [...]
The Chilling Legacy of Jedwabne: When Neighbors Murder Neighbors
This low stone wall marks the circumference of the barn in Jedwabne, where more than 300 Jews were burned to death [...]
The Warsaw Jewish Cemetery Makes More Than a Century of Vibrant Jewish Life Tangible
Our November tour of the sites of Jewish history and the Holocaust in Poland and Lithuania began with a visit to the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery. With more than 250,000 [...]