Sara Mansfield Taber

Teaches at The Writer's Center

Sara Mansfield Taber is the author of award-winning Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy's Daughter, Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia, and Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf. Her essays, memoirs, and cultural commentary have appeared in literary journals, newspapers, including The Washington Post, and been produced for public radio. Holder of a doctorate in human development from Harvard, she is a past William Sloane Fellow in Nonfiction for the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and a long-time Writer’s Center instructor. She has also taught at Johns Hopkins University, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and other programs, and works as an editor and writing coach. Once a whale researcher, she enjoys taking long wintry beach walks and baking chocolate cakes.

Teaching style: “Gentle and rigorous,” students say of Sara Taber’s teaching style. In her workshops, Sara cultivates a warm, safe, adventurous, and challenging atmosphere for participants. Her 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. As a workshop leader, she guides workshop members to act as collaborators with one another, helping the manuscripts that come before the group to fulfill their promise.