Anna Olswanger offers lectures and multi-session workshops on creating an Ethical Will, a document long in use in Jewish history whose aim is to bequeath a spiritual legacy or heritage of values. The presentations appeal to professionals of all religious backgrounds who are looking for the chance to write personal essays, reminiscences, or musings, and who want to express in an Ethical Will what they have learned in life. The workshops, which include composing and editing exercises, help participants find their writer's "voice." The workshops are suitable in hospice settings.

To arrange for a lecture or workshop at your institution or corporation, contact Anna Olswanger for prices and available dates.

Olswanger has lectured on Ethical Wills to Jewish Genealogy Societies across the country, including the JGS of Greater Washington, the JGS of Los Angeles, and the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies. Since 1997 she has been teaching nonfiction writing in her business writing workshops for the Johns Hopkins University Center for Education and Training. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, she earned her B.A. with Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, from Rhodes College in Memphis, and her M.A. from the University of Memphis. "The Home of the Blues" is the backdrop to many of her fiction stories, including "Chicken Bone Man," which won Maryland's F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Contest. Olswanger moved from Baltimore to New Jersey in 2001 where she works in public relations for a nonprofit organization and owns her own small publishing company. A professional writer, she is the editor and publisher of The Memphis Music of Berl Olswanger and The Olschwanger Journal, which won a Certificate of Award at the first International Seminar in Jewish Genealogy in Jerusalem. Olswanger considers her fiction her Ethical Will.