The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration

About The Grannie Annie Mission

The mission of The Grannie Annie is to inspire young people to discover, write, illustrate, and share stories from their family's history, and to publish collections of their work.

Through its annual publications and additional related activities, The Grannie Annie encourages young people around the world to interview family members to discover stories from their family’s history. When the stories are brought to life in written form, they can be shared with others and preserved for future generations.

There's even more: Behind each family story lie experiences familiar to people in different centuries and on different continents. These simple, and very personal, family stories can help writers and readers to forge a bond with people whose lives may seem very different from their own — and move the world one step closer to peace.

An Introduction to The Grannie Annie

The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration, founded in 2005, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation based in St. Louis, Missouri. Its mission is to inspire young people to discover, write, illustrate, and share stories from their family's history, and to publish collections of their work.

The Grannie Annie invites young people in U.S. grades 4 through 8, and homeschooled and international students 9 through 14 years of age, to interview people from an older generation of their family and to write about something they learn from their family's history — a story from before their birth. Authors are encouraged to share their stories with their extended family and their community as well as with The Grannie Annie.

From the stories submitted each year, some are selected for publication in a paperback book, released in May, and publication on the Grannie Annie website. Beginning in 2011, some stories are published in a PDF book as well. There is no submission fee; the annual story submission deadline is February 1.

Submissions have been received from across the United States and from around the world. Published stories have taken place on six continents over a span of about 400 years. The Grannie Annie stories bring history to life, providing readers with a vivid glimpse of life in other places and other times, and revealing both the uniqueness and the commonality of people's experiences.

Young people who participate in The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration have an opportunity to preserve their family stories, strengthen family bonds and their sense of their own identity, polish their writing and illustrating skills, and deepen their appreciation of history.