Sarah Einstein: Impacting Local Literature

Chattanooga author and professor Sarah Einstein seeks to interact with and impact the local literary community through her writing.

Sarah found inspiration in her curiosity of the world, which has led to her traveling across the world to seek the answers to the questions she has. Her first novel, Mot: A Memoir, follows her journey as she travels west to visit her friend, a homeless veteran. She has also written Remnants of Passion and Tripart Hart.

When writing, Sarah imagines herself as a camera, pointing herself at interesting and important details of life experiences, and then she shares these details with her readers. She also believes that, when someone is truly interested in something, their interest can become apparent on the page of the writer and involve the reader. Sarah succeeds in doing just this, for many of her readers have praised her works. She has also received several awards for her writing, such as a Pushcart Prize, a Best of the Net, and the AWP Prize in Creative Nonfiction.

Sarah full-heartedly believes that writing is a community. Some of her most trusted readers are former students of hers. As a professor of creative writing at UTC, she has impacted the lives of many students, and they have just as equally impacted hers, creating a supportive writing community amongst them.

Sarah has greatly appreciated the community of Chattanooga since she first moved here, for the city provides many opportunities to get more involved in various areas of interest. Sarah’s first writing job was for a video game, and now she teaches interactive narratives as well. Through this, Sarah has plans to combine the arts and sciences to serve middle school students in the community by assisting them in creating their own video games.

Sarah is currently working on her next novel and will be traveling to Europe soon to complete more research. This next novel of hers will discuss both Appalachian and Jewish identities and how an individual can be both. Wanting to learn more about this, Sarah is taking her readers along with her on her journey of discovery.

Sarah’s advice for aspiring writers is to become involved with the literary community. Whether it is volunteering for a literary journal or starting your own reading group, good things come from community. Sarah sold her second novel on Twitter by following an editor she admired, and this was done through her involvement with the literary community.

Learn more about Sarah’s work on her website!