Annecy Báez

A Bit About Me

My Story

I am an educator, social worker, and psychotherapist who came to writing for healing.  At the time, I was the Director of an inpatient residential diagnostic trauma center for children who had been abused.  Expressive arts in the form of visual art, poetry, and fiction were my go-to places for renewal and healing. This is how I came to write. Writing was always in my bones, but working with children, and teens and their trauma allowed me to process their experiences through the arts, particularly in the form of visual arts, poetry, and writing.

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I have a Master's and a doctorate in Clinical Social Work. I am an Associate Professor at Touro College Graduate School of Social Work where I teach clinical practice and Arts Intervention in Social Work Practice.  I have a small private practice in Westchester County where my focus is on trauma, shame, anxiety, and depression as well as grief. I am a certified facilitator in the Amherst Writer’s and Artists Method and I run writing groups for mental health professionals, particularly social workers, who use expressive writing for healing and personal transformation.

I have been writing since I was a child, but when I finished my doctoral dissertation in 1995, it was then that I decided to follow my dream to write stories. It was then that I took my writing from the research to the literary. It was not easy. I worked full time. I had another profession. So, I  read and wrote every day and every night. I practiced and I never stopped.  I was patient.  When I had the draft of one of my stories, "the Red Shoes",  I took a creative writing class, and with a few words of encouragement, I joined a writer's group with novelist and writing coach, Emily Hanlon, later Fredrik Douglas where I met Nelly Rosario author Songs of the Water Saints, she led me to the Daisy Cocdo Di Felippis, Tertulia, where I met other talented writers, Marianela Medrano, Josefina Baez, Angie Cruz, Sonia Valdez, and others.  In Daisy's house, we enjoyed her husband's delicious cooking,  while hearing each other read.  

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In 2004, I was the Director of the Counseling Center at Lehman College/CUNY,  and writing was difficult, so I had to be very disciplined.  I was told that with a full-time job and a short story collection, most unpublished, my chances of getting an agent or getting published were slim.  Knowing that the odds were against me, I read an article in Poets and Writers that recommended small publishing press.  I decided to become my own agent and I  searched for a small publishing press until I  found   Curbstone Press. I liked Curbstone Press's social justice mission statement at the end of their books, it deeply resonated with my own work as a social worker, therapist, and writer.   Sandy Taylor, the editor, recommended submission of my manuscript to their Marmol Prize for First Latina Fiction. I made finalist twice and then after reading a great article in Poets & Writer's I edited the stories to make each character and story interrelated.  I submitted my manuscript again, and I finally won the Marmol Prize for Fiction in 2007.  So, I am the proud author of My Daughter's Eyes and Other Stories, published by Curbstone Press, and winner of the Marmol Prize for first Latina fiction (2007). It was like giving birth.  There was so much joy. I did it! 

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Then, in 2008, six months after my book was published, my editor and mentor, Sandy Taylor passed away. The world lost a great and compassionate soul. I lost a fierce supporter who believed in me. A few months after his death, my husband was diagnosed with Cancer. Despite his illness, my husband encouraged me to write every day. I did hospice care at home, and throughout his illness, I wrote when time allowed it.  Three years later he passed away in 2011. He was my sanctuary, my compass, a light in the dark. My grounding. Honest. He kept it real.  A pause. Grief. Loss. My world was turned upside down.  It was hard, it took long, but slowly, with the support of many loved ones, I found myself out of grief into the light and a new job. I continue to write, but I would say I continue to create in many ways, not just writing. I love art, visual arts in the form of collage, drawing, painting, visual journals, and contemplative photography.

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One thing I have learned about writing is that a book is made possible by its readers. I am deeply grateful for readers like you who refer my book to a friend. I am thankful for professors like you who use my stories in a class or workshop. I want to thank all of you for supporting this collection of stories, and for your word of encouragement to continue. Your letters are gifts that warm my heart and guide my way to writing.  With deep gratitude for all of your support.