Sara Mansfield Taber

As poet Jane Hirschfield has said, “what a writing workshop offers participants is the rare opportunity to find out how their words are living in others’ minds.” In her workshops, Sara cultivates a warm, safe, and adventurous atmosphere for participants. She guides workshop members to act as collaborators with one another, helping the manuscripts that come before the class to “fulfill their promise.”

Sara’s primary goal is provide encouragement to aspiring writers—encouragement, along with detailed and specific feedback on what would enrich, deepen, and strengthen the work at hand. She gives close attention to all matters of craft, including: voice; concrete detail; figurative language; characterization; structure & plot; balance of scene, summary, & reflection; and sense of time & place. Use of observation and interview material; and incorporation of historical, political, and factual information are also given attention.

In her workshops, most of the class time is devoted to the discussion of participants’ manuscripts. As the study of published works is an indispensable part of a writer’s work, however, some attention is given each session to the examination of elegant classic or recently-published nonfiction pieces, and to discussion of readings on the writer’s craft.

“Sara Taber creates a supportive environment for aspiring writers to be, and do, their her best. She’s a master psychologist, a master of constructive criticism, and a master at giving you courage and encouragement. On a scale of 100 I’d give her 130.”

Sara Taber offers private seminars on the writing of literary nonfiction: personal essay, memoir, literary journalism, and portraits of people& place. On a periodic basis, she teaches courses in creative nonfiction writing at the Writer’s Center, in Bethesda, Maryland; at Washington D.C. area universities; and in Europe. She also offers small classes and tutorials upon request.

"Sara Taber is the writing coach we'd all create if she didn't already exist. She's a gifted writer whose continuing success in the publishing world gives authority to her practical advice. A a gifted teacher who artfully relates theory to published examples appropriate for each student, she's generous with her time and praise, but demanding in her expectations."

COURSES

Advanced Workshop for Writers of Books of Literary Nonfiction: Memoir, Essay Collections, Travel and Literary Journalism

This workshop, offered in eight-week sections throughout the year, provides book writers regular support and feedback on their writing by other writers familiar with their work. Manuscripts are the main focus, but each session includes some discussion of readings, and of issues that arise for book writers.

The Writer's Toolbox

This is a workshop for students who wish to hone their skills in the elements of writing that make for fine literary nonfiction of all kinds. During class, students examine short excerpts from beautiful published work and practice various aspects of the writer’s craft, such as: voice, concrete detail, balance of scene, summary & musing, etc. This class provides a jump-start for beginners and refreshment for long-time creative nonfiction writers.

Experience and Imagination: Memoir and Personal Essay

As memoirist Patricia Hampl has written, autobiographical writing is the place “where memory reaches out its arms and embraces imagination.” The purpose of this workshop is to give class members the opportunity to shape memories and personal experience into a variety of forms of creative nonfiction, including personal essay, memoir, and travel pieces. The emphasis of the class is to help writers refine their drafts, attending to all the important elements of the writer's art.

Literary Journalism: Portraits of People and Place

This is a course for writers who wish to create evocative portraits of individuals or peoples within their cultures, work places, or geographies. Here classes focus on the use of a variety of kinds of journalistic or anthropological material (interviews; field notes; descriptions of people and places; anecdotes; historical information; exposition; and personal reflection) along with the techniques of the creative writer to produce vivid portraits of people in their contexts. Works by literary journalists (ie., McPhee, Kramer, and Kapuscinski), memoirists (ie., Ondaatje and Norris), oral historians (ie., Berger), and nature writers (ie., Lopez) are examined for clues to craft. Writers who have in-depth interview and participant observational, and/or personal experiences that arise from immersion in a particular place may find this course of particular interest.

The Foreigner's Notebook: A Writing Course for Anglophone Residents Abroad

Alastair Reid has written in Whereabouts: Notes on Being a Foreigner, “In a foreign country, the pattern of days is less predictable—each one has its character, and is easier to remember. So, too, the weather; and so, too, the shape and feel of newspapers, the sound of bells, the taste of beer and bread. It is all rather like waking up and not knowing who or where one is…quite ordinary things take on an edge; one keeps discovering oneself miraculously alive.” This is a course for expatriates, for Anglophone residents of foreign countries, who wish to write for publication about their experiences abroad, or who simply want to keep a colorful journal or “notebook” of their travels and experiences. During this workshop, students hone their skills in the elements of the writer’s craft that make for fine memoir, essay, and journal writing, as well as for lively travel pieces and portraits of people & place. By learning more about the writer’s craft students may find that their writing about life abroad comes “miraculously alive.”

International Nonfiction

In this literature course, students read and analyze an array of notable creative nonfiction from abroad. The purpose of the course is to give students the opportunity to examine nonfiction from outside the United States with an eye for new perspectives, subjects, voices, and writing techniques that they may incorporate into their own writing. The main objective, throughout this course, is to expose students to the abundance of literature written by people across seas, and to offer them “new ways of being” as writers—to give students added hammers and chunks of wood for their writerly tool chests.