Sarah Terez Rosenblum
MORE STUDENT TESTIMONIALS
“After retiring from the practice of law, I took a course with Sarah at Story Studio three years ago. I was impressed with her smarts, and her honesty, and her commitment to her students and I signed up for one-on-one sessions going forward. The result has been a marvelous collaboration in which, with Sarah’s patient and skillful help, and despite having had no previous experience writing fiction, I’ve published three stories and had several others short listed in contests. Sarah combines intelligence, technical skill, penetrating insight into character and human nature, and a gift for offering firm but constructive criticism. I heartily recommend her course to anyone interested in becoming a better writer.” -Herbert L. Zarov, Associate Attorney at Mayer Brown
“I was a bit of a novice when I finished the first draft of my memoir three years ago. Sarah was instrumental in helping me pivot from scholarly writing to creative nonfiction. She identified the elements of craft I needed to master to tell my story the way I wanted to tell it. This delicate touch really distinguishes her as a teacher and as a coach, in my opinion. She didn't try to press my project into an existing mold. She was intelligent enough to recognize what was distinctive about my work and secure enough to encourage me to give it full expression.”
—Jeff Seitzer, author of "The Fun Master".
“Working with Sarah is freeing—she’s an open, warm, and intuitive guide. Sarah helped shape the portfolio which earned me a spot in three different MFA programs across the country. Having completed my MFA at Texas State University I am now working with Sarah to polish my graduate thesis for publication.”
—Cristina Chopalli, Chicago freelance writer and memoirist
“Sarah is a sharp and focused teacher who is extremely present in our coaching sessions. She has helped me see my writing with much more clarity, on a large scale as well as on a line by line level. She is a meticulous reader and offers excellent critical feedback, while giving me the room and freedom to explore. She takes into account my weaknesses and my strengths and has worked hard to help me achieve the goals that I have for my writing. Our sessions vary widely from dealing with structural or grammatical problems to brainstorming ideas for how to make a story more whole or meaningful. Her positive energy and enthusiasm about writing is incredible and she has been an invaluable part of my development and growth as a writer.”
—Becky Payne, Current MFA Student at Northwestern
“Sarah has helped me zero in on what's working in my story and what's not and how to fix it. I find her sincerity, enthusiasm and great skill as an instructor and mentor invaluable.”
—Arlene Burd, Chicago Writer
"I would follow Sarah Terez Rosenblum anywhere. As a teacher and as a published writer, I can speak to her qualities as a classroom presence, a critical reader, a thoroughly prepared instructor, and a committed writer."
-Rhoda Stamell
“For years, I have wanted to write and pitch as well as submit my writing more, but sort of floundered about in isolation. I met Sarah in a writing class and felt an instant kinship. I've since continued working with her one-on-one and produced more solid work in the last year than in the previous four years combined. Her notes are always spot-on, and she has an endless number of helpful reading recommendations, but most importantly I've grown as a writer thanks to how she encourages me to listen to and feed my intuition.”
—Amanda Nyren, Content Marketer & Strategist
“Before meeting with Sarah, I’d written countless drafts over the course of seven years. Her thoughtful and sharp feedback gave me the fuel to revise my final draft, and the confidence to know it was truly finished. Sarah was like an amazing therapist for my novel (and me as a writer!). She has an intuitive gift as a reader of fiction-- and people-- that makes her uniquely great at what she does. I whole-heartedly recommend Sarah to anyone ready to take a deep, satisfying dive into their work.
—Lara Levitan, Novelist
“Sarah is, by far, the best writing teacher I've ever had. She has a wealth of genres, styles and approaches to writing at her fingertips and never imposes a particular set of writing concepts. Instead, she listens closely to my questions and goals and reads my work with an eye toward helping me develop my own, unique voice and become the writer I want to be. And her feedback is incredible! Somehow she manages to give overarching and detailed suggestions (down to the nitty gritty of word choice and sentence structure) that don't overwhelm me. Instead, they bring out the strengths in my work while motivating me to refine it. While other writing instructors have made me feel vulnerable and shut down my creative process, Sarah has given me the confidence to explore and take risks through her faith in me as a writer. I wish more instructors were like her!”
-Lauren Myers-Hinkle, Poet
“I’ve worked with Sarah for many years, in several capacities, and I can say without doubt, she is the best there is. She’s thorough, thoughtful, and an amazing wordsmith. She has an uncanny ability to understand what your piece is trying to say and help you say it even better. Whether it was helping to polish a short story, or helping to clarify the direction of my novel, Sarah’s talent, patience, and humor have ushered me through more than a few tight spots! In fact, working with Sarah has not only helped me shape and refine specific projects, it’s made me a better writer overall, as I’ve been able to take what I’ve learned from her and apply it to my writing more generally.”
—Molly DiRago, Chicago writer
“Offering criticism is desperately hard when the object is as personal as a piece someone has created; Ms. Rosenblum manages to offer discussion, and useful and constructive criticism in a manner that the subject accepts, takes hold of, and is enthusiastic about. I find it hard to express the excitement and interest that working with her has engendered. I can even find it in my heart to happily forgive her a completely unreasonable bias against adverbs.”
—Myles A Toomey, Chicago philosopher and writer
“When you’re a young writer, it means the world to find a mentor who respects your process, takes your work seriously, and provides candid feedback. Over the past three years, Sarah has filled this role for me in an incomparable way. As a reader, she’s sharp, sympathetic, and insightful, picking up on everything from minute line-level miscalculations to the broadest thematic overtures of a piece—the ones the writer herself often isn’t aware of yet. She’s a lot of fun to work with, too, and I always look forward to our conversations.”
—Current student, MFA candidate at Johns Hopkins University