About Ani
Award-winning poet. Author. Writing Mentor.
Writing has been a lifelong way for Ani to come home to herself, to find out and express what is in her heart.
Ani grew up on a back-road chicken farm, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. At the age of eight, she began writing to an invisible companion, filling page after page with her questions about a world darkened by the shadow of the Holocaust and the bewildering bigotry of her American neighbors.
But there was also the ecstasy of rain, the dance of the willow in the wind, the stars illuminating the night sky. Writing about it all—in the silent, unconditional embrace of nature—became Ani’s path to the light.
Years later, Ani’s deep appreciation for the gifts of writing, united with her desire to nurture the spirits and creativity of children, led her to form writing groups for children (many of which took place in the woods). After a trip to India, Ani founded Dance of the Letters, where for over 40 years she has provided welcoming spaces for children, teens, men and women to find and free their voices.
Listen to Ani's Welcome Message
Being awakened to the practice of meditation proved the perfect complement to writing, revealing a direct path to the inner wellsprings of love and creativity.
Along the way, Ani became captivated by legends of an eighteenth-century Eastern European mystic rabbi known as the Baal Shem Tov, who valued all people as equal. A Kabbalist, he taught that divine sparks are hidden everywhere, and it is one’s sacred duty to find and free the energy in these sparks whose essence is love. When Ani turned fifty, she experienced an inner call to write about this spiritual master. Her literary, historical novel The Tremble of Love: A Novel of the Baal Shem Tov, is the response to that call.
The Tremble of Love: A Novel of the Baal Shem Tov, a work of transformative fiction, is a testament to the inextinguishable fire of love. Although people and their institutions may be devastated, as was the case with Eastern European Jewry and with other cultures throughout history, the human capacity to love and to heal cannot be defeated.
Ani’s latest book, which took her by surprise, is an unexpected memoir. In Angels on the Clothesline, Ani, the woman, bridges time to be the presence missing from her childhood. What opens up is an intimate account of vulnerability, creativity, and irrepressible resilience. Although a very different book from her novel, both books invite readers into an experience of compassionate loving.
In addition to her passion for writing, Ani savors meditation, long walks through the changing seasons, keeping company with her changing grandchildren, and the joys of inspiring people of all ages to find and free their voices.
Vigil of Light
Wanting Words
When God Takes The Mother