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Annecy Báez

My Daughter's Eyes and Other Stories

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Notebook and Pen

Welcome

Hello and welcome. I am Annecy Baez a Dominican American writer, author of My Daughter’s Eyes and Other Stories, a collection of fourteen interrelated stories about young girls growing up in the Bronx.  

 

As an adolescent, I longed to hear stories about Dominican young women living in the Bronx.  I promised myself that one day I would write those stories and I did. As a trauma therapist, it is no a surprise to me that many of my stories address the issues of power in a patriarchal society, child abuse, sexual trauma, loss, and grief. At the time, I was a Director and therapist of a trauma center for sexually abuse children and teens.  Writing created balance, and it allowed me to creatively process my feelings about the painful stories I heard day today.  

My poems and short stories have appeared in periodicals, including the anthologies Vinyl Donuts, from the National Book Foundation, as well as Brújula/Compass and Tertuliando/Hanging Out, a bilingual literary anthology published by Hunter Caribbean Studies and Latinarte; “Butterfly Kisses” appeared in Riverine: Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers, edited by Laurence Carr, Codhill Press; and translated in Spanish as “Besos de Mariposas" and appeared in Viajeros del Rocio, edited by Rubén Sánchez Féliz.  “The Red Shoes,” was translated by Ruth Herrera and appeared in Spanish as “Tacones Rojos” in Caudal, a literary journal in the Dominican Republic. My story “The Silence of Angels” and my poetry appeared in Callaloo, a literary journal based at Johns Hopkins University.  Presently, I am a professor at Touro College Graduate School of Social Work where I teach clinical courses and trauma-informed expressive arts in Social Work Practice. I am interested in working with mental health practitioners interested in the expressive arts as I find the arts are not given voice in social work practice.

 

I am available for talks about my work and my creative process, about how I have managed a dual career, and the difficulties and joys that this brings.  As a writer, educator, and psychotherapist, I facilitate writing workshops for mental health professionals.  I use expressive writing in my personal and professional work for personal growth and transformation. In my spare time, I enjoying being with family and friends and playing with my dogs Suki and Duke.  I enjoy contemplative photography, mixed media collage, book art, and visual journaling.   

I feel blessed by the positive responses my work has received. When I attend readings in a college or a panel, I  am always moved by your enthusiasm and support. Your words of encouragement always motivate me to write more.  

 

I  look forward to sharing my future stories and poems as they come to fruition. In the meantime, scroll down and check out my book, blog, and links to anthologies where my stories or poems have appeared.  To learn more about me go to my linktree

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“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou

Several Open Books

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.

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.  

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! 

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.

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. 

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My Daughter's Eyes and Other Stories

July 1, 2007

My Daughter's Eyes and Other Stories, winner of the 2007 Mármol Prize, is a collection of fourteen interrelated stories about young Dominican women living in the Bronx as they deal with the choices they make in their everyday life. These stories span three decades, beginning in the 1970s, and their topics range from mother-daughter struggles, father-daughter betrayal, family, and child abuse, to emerging sexuality, love, loss, and healing.
Annecy Baez's daring treatment of taboo themes, such as sexual child abuse and the struggle of the individual against restrictive traditional values, makes this book unique in Dominican fiction.

 “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” 

 Anne Frank

Books On Shelf

I am deeply grateful for the support I have received from readers, editors and  writers. Below are a few books or journals where my stories or poems have appeared. It has been a fantastic journey.

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La Palabra Revelada

January 29, 2014

This is a beautiful collection of essays by Latinx writers and compiled by Marianela Medrano and Miriam Mejía.  I was so excited when asked to contribute to this collection. This is what the autors said about this collection “One of the intentions of this collection was to encourage the approach of the writers to their authorial process, the act of revealing and rebelling in writing. The word rebelled / revealed: the power to tell us.. “

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Butterfly Kisses in Riverine

October 15, 2007

I was reading "Butterfly Kisses" a short story about my relationship with my daughter's father. I read it  at the Hudson Valley Writer's Center when Laurence Carr asked me to submit the story to the anthology. This was a moving and magial experience.


Riverine is a contemporary anthology of memoir, short fiction, and poetry by over seventy Hudson Valley writers.

The memoirs reflect Hudson Valley life along with life outside the U.S. Intriguing short stories, both dark and light, explore a wide range of fictional characters. Microfiction (or flash fiction) brings the reader the razor-sharp genre of the short-short story and thought-provoking prose poems. Two poetry sections offer a wide array of styles from a diverse group of poets. "Hudson Valley Views" focuses upon the landscape of the valley that these poets call home. "Other Realms" journeys to the inner mindscape and takes the reader to places both real and imaginary.

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Besos de Mariposa in Viajeros del Rocio

January 20, 2008

Viajeros del Rocío samples of 25 Dominican authors who live far from the homeland.   I was asked to submit a story to this anthology. I felt blessed, the translator did such an amazing job in translating "Butterfly Kisses", in SpanishBesos de Mariposas.

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The Red Shoes in Caudal

Oct-Dic.,  2004

It is 2004,  I read “the Red Shoes” at a literary conference at NYU. A young woman, Ruth Herrera from the publishing company Alfaguara in the DR. asked me if I could give her my story to translate in Spanish. I said “sure” and I sent it to her. A few months later, she sends me the most beautiful translation and tells me that the editor of a literary journal in the DR, Caudal,  wants the Red Shoes, Tacones Rojos.  I was overjoyed, my father was able to read my story in Spanish.

Summary: Red high-heeled shoes become a symbol of desire and sex. The daughter loves them and the mother, full of prejudices and assaulted by the erotic memories of a lover, denies them, when she is determined to show them off and enjoy them

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Callaloo - Dominican Republic Literature and Culture

Vol. 23, No. 3, Summer, 2000

Imagine the joy I felt when in 2000 a query came from John Hopkin’s University literary journal, Callaloo, for Dominican writer’s to submit their literary work.I sent in 3 poems, “My Parents Room”, “For a Long Time When I was a Child”, and “Flow” and a short story, “The Silence of Angels”, I  was hoping they would accept one. Imagine my joy when they accepted them all.

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Poetry in  Tertuliando/Hanging Out

January 20, 1997

Tertuliando/Hanging Out means just that, Latinx writer’s travelling to  Daisy Cocco de Fellipis’ house in Queens to hang out and read poems and stories in progress. 1997 feels like so long ago, but it was then and there that I felt I had achieved my childhood dream, I was a writer.

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