ABOUT HEART RADICAL
I wanted to understand how my path was tied to my mother tongue. As a young, multiracial, bilingual American woman, I traveled through China, the country of my mother’s birth. Along the way, I tried on different roles—spiritual seeker, English teacher, student of Chinese, girlfriend, artist, and daughter—and continually asked myself: Why am I called to make this journey?
“Traversing two countries across two decades, Heart Radical gets at the multiple meanings of the heart in word, in practice, in physical and emotional use and evolution. Vivid with sensory experiences, this book offers us the chance to travel not just with Kellor but also within our own interior landscapes to arrive at new and deeper ways of connecting to our hearts' most fervent and secret wishes.”
“In Heart Radical, language becomes a rich metaphor for our own complicated and changing identities. “To be radical,” Anne Liu Kellor tells us, “is to be rooted in your essential nature.” In this soulful memoir, Kellor looks to the many ways language is a means of communication, yes, but can also be a barrier to a full understanding of ourselves and of each other. In following Kellor’s journey to China and back again, we find ourselves searching for what is most radical—most essential—in our own hearts.”
about anne
Anne Liu Kellor is a mixed-race Chinese American writer, editor, and teacher based in Seattle. Her essays have appeared in YES! Magazine, Longreads, Fourth Genre, Witness, New England Review, Entropy, The Normal School, Los Angeles Review, Literary Mama, and many more. She earned her MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles, and is the recipient of fellowships from Hedgebrook, The Seventh Wave, Jack Straw Writers Program, 4Culture, and Hypatia-in-the-Woods. Anne teaches writing workshops and leads writing retreats across the Pacific Northwest, including her annual workshop, Both/And: Reading and Writing the Mixed-Race Experience. She also facilitates a Yearlong Creative Nonfiction Manuscript Program for 8 women and nonbinary writers seeking mentorship, accountability, developmental editing and community.
“Heart Radical is a richly absorbing, deeply moving book about one woman’s search for identity, enlightenment, and connection. It’s also a tender travel memoir that takes the reader on an unforgettable and intimate journey with the author as she grapples with being a twentysomething American in China—the country from which her mother immigrated. I loved this book. It’s vulnerable, searching, insightful, riveting and beautifully written.”
Read my essays “Shapeshifting: Discovering the ‘We’ in Mixed-Race Experiences” in YES! Magazine, and “Miseducated: Encounters with Blackness and Whiteness,” in Seventh Wave Magazine.
Anne is the kind of person whose presence inspires a feeling of belonging and safety. I did some of my best writing while participating in her classes. She somehow managed to pull the important stories out of me, and then inspired me to do the work of turning them into pieces of writing I was proud of.
Anne reconnected me to my relationship with writing and ensured that we would try not to lose sight of each other again. She shows up as a mentor with plenty of wisdom and words to share but also as a fellow writer, learning and stumbling alongside everyone she teaches. It is both humbling and inspiring to watch her and engage with her as a teacher and as a comrade. She tirelessly tweaks her approaches and material, never settling or getting comfortable. Her intentional practices are invigorating to be a part of.
I love to teach and work with other writers. For over fifteen years, I’ve facilitated workshops for people of all ages and experience levels, centering the voices of women, BIPOC, and other marginalized people. My offerings focus on creative nonfiction, memoir, and generative workshops to help folks build and sustain a writing practice, mostly through the Hugo House in Seattle. I offer uniquely tailored courses for mixed-race people, womxn of color, and mothers, and I lead writing and mindfulness retreats for womxn at the Whidbey Institute.
Currently, registration is open for my 10-week workshop, Both/And: Reading and Writing the Mixed-Race Experience which runs Wednesday evenings from 2.28.24 - 5.8.24 (skip April 10th). Scholarship applications are due 1.25.24.
In 2020, I started offering an annual year-long nonfiction manuscript program for a small cohort of women-identified writers. Participants set and share goals; explore individual strengths and challenges; discuss the writing process and craft; learn about book structures and publication; meet monthly as a group and one-on-one with me, and receive a full manuscript evaluation. This takes place online via Slack, email, and Zoom, with potential in-person meetings in the future. Students form a community of mutual support that continues long after the year is over. Applications for the 2024-2025 cohort will be available in May 2024.
As a facilitator, creativity coach, and developmental editor, I love working with writers from diverse backgrounds and experience levels, whether in group settings or one-on-one. I offer scholarships or sliding scales when possible.
Read on to find out the different ways we can work together!
