and I teach others how to write stories from their family history through my courses, workshops, and books.
I am thrilled to be offering this online workshop under the umbrella of Projectkin's Migration Stories to help you write your family's migration story.
Exploring my family history changed my life. When I visited the Czech Republic in 2002, I felt 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, particularly the expulsion of my father's family from Czechoslovakia after World War II. That event would forever change my family's trajectory. I captured it in my migration story, The Flying Dutchman, which we will look at closely in this workshop.
While I have always written to understand my life, that trip to the Czech Republic 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 and creating my guide How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History. This exploration also led to my award-winning children’s book Natalie and the Nazi Soldiers, which is based on my mother-in-law’s experience as a hidden child in France during the Holocaust.
Introduce yourself and your migration project!
Our first week together will include:
Thursday, October 8, 2026, 7:00 - 8:30pm CDT, Live Zoom Session:
How this workshop will work
Introductions & sharing of migration story projects
Lecture: Context is King and the Basics of Writing Stories from Family History
How to give feedback
Sunday, October 11: Submit your first draft of up to 1,000 words.
Wednesday, October 14: Provide feedback to at least two classmates (assigned by instructor).
Thursday, October 15:
Complete reading assignment in time for our next live Zoom session.
You will also receive feedback from the instructor on your submission before our next live Zoom session.
Our second week together will include:
Thursday, October 15, 2026, 7:00 - 8:30pm CDT, Live Zoom Session:
General instructor feedback on first submissions
Lecture: Case Study of The Flying Dutchman
Q&A
Sunday, October 18: Submit your second draft of up to 1,000 words.
Wednesday, October 21: Provide feedback to at least two classmates (assigned by instructor).
Thursday, October 22:
Complete reading assignment in time for our next live Zoom session.
You will also receive feedback from the instructor on your submission before our next live Zoom session.
Our third week together will include:
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 7:00 - 8:30pm CDT, Live Zoom Session:
General instructor feedback on second submissions
Lecture: Bringing the Story to Life (Framing, Characterization, Places & the Five Senses)
Q&A
Sunday, October 25: Submit your third draft of up to 1,000 words.
Wednesday, October 28: Provide feedback to at least two classmates (assigned by instructor).
Thursday, October 29:
Complete reading assignment in time for our next live Zoom session.
You will also receive feedback from the instructor on your submission before our next live Zoom session.
At our last Zoom session, the instructor will offer a wrap-up lecture and there will be time for Q&A.
If you'd like to share your polished story with a wider audience, I'm happy to share your story via my Substack as well as Projectkin's Migration Stories.
"Seeing Annette's thoughtful feedback is very enlightening. It's also very helpful to see us commenting on each other's posts. Very enriching!"
"Annette asks workshop participants to discover the questions about their families they need to live rather than answer. When we met in 2013, she was the assistant leader of our workshop. At our initial individual meeting to review my project, she asked whether readers could understand the complexity of my African American family with ten children from my prologue. At our final meeting, she asked whether my relationships with my siblings could become the organizational structure for a memoir. Those questions have led to a stand-alone published essay about one “lost” brother in 2017 and a published memoir that dissects the individual sibling relationships along the way, Scholarship Boy: Meditations on Family and Race (2020). Like all good teachers, Annette was coaching me to dig deeper inside myself for those questions that transformed my life."
"My writing, confidence, and motivation to challenge myself to dig deeper and continue writing already have benefitted immeasurably from Annette’s insightful critiques of ALL of our stories."