Books, Film & More
Books & Films
Truth and Agency: Writing Ideas For Adopted People
June 2022
I wrote this book in case I got hit by a bus. I didn’t want all I’ve learned working with adopted people as a writing coach to disappear. I have come up with so many writing prompts that I think are helpful and original to my brain, and I was afraid I’d go nuts up in heaven thinking that I should have left some sort of document behind. In other words, I wrote this book so I could relax in the future and so you can write now.
You Don’t Look Adopted
July, 2016
Can writing your story save your life?
I should have come with a manual. My parents thought they were getting one thing when they adopted me—a baby of their own—when what they got was a human being with a story of her own.
As a child, I traded safety for silence.
As an adult, I had no idea who I was, why I quit nearly everything I started, why I struggled with things that came more easily to my friends (jobs, relationships, finances, self-esteem), why I seemed hell-bent on throwing myself away.
It got to the point where I didn’t care if telling my story was going to kill me: I was going to find a way to tell it, because living a life that felt like a lie was unbearable.
In order to write this book, I moved away from everything I knew, maxed out my credit cards, borrowed from friends and family, had lots of sex with strangers. Nearly penniless, I was living like a millionaire in the apartment of a fabulously famous writer. I was finally listening to my own voice. I ate cheesecake for dinner and fell in love with the East Village. I broke almost every rule I ran into because I was afraid this kind of freedom couldn’t go on forever. As I wrote, I lived every day as if it were my last.
I was in for such a surprise.
I wrote this book in 93 days. If I can do it, anyone can.
Making a Mess: Writing and Pooping
by Anne Heffron
This book is for anyone who thinks they can't write. This book is for the person who has stories inside but who feels stuck. This book is for anyone who wants to write but is afraid they can't. This book proves that if you can breathe, if you can poop (!), you can write.
Phantom Halo (Sleep No More)
Antonia and I made a movie. I still can't believe it. Being in a theater and listening to characters speak a world you created is amazing.
Perfect is Boring: Get Your Head Out of Your Ass
by Kathy Delaney-Smith, Laura Barnard, and Anne Heffron
Coming soon.
I was a co-writer of the (currently in development) leadership book Perfect is Boring: Get Your Head Out of Your Ass by Kathy Delaney-Smith, the winningest coach in Ivy League history.
Podcasts & Interviews
Overcoming Odds Podcast
Indiana Adoptee Network News Podcast
Adoptees Unplugged with Anne Heffron - Anne Gets to meet her birth father!
Indiana Adoptee Network News Podcast
Adoptees Unplugged with Host Pam Kroskie guest Anne Heffron.
Born in June Raised in April: What Adoption Can Teach the World
Adoptees On
Adoptees On
Anne Heffron - My Edgy Adoption Story
Being adopted can make it seem easier to not exist than to exist.