Student Stories: The Writing Institute

"It was an intense privilege," says Tina Traster, "to be able to sit and think and write about the most important thing." Traster, a long-time journalist at The New York Post, enrolled in memoir-writing classes at The Writing Institute because she wanted to write her family's story of adopting a Russian child. Her resulting memoir was published in 2014.

Writing Institute student Angie Hunt sat down for a conversation with classmate Lucia Greenhouse, author of the recently published fathermothergod: My Journey Out of Christian Science. In this haunting, beautifully written book, Lucia pulls back the curtain on the Christian Science faith and chronicles its complicated legacy for her family. At once an essentially American coming-of-age story and a glimpse into the practices of a religion few really understand, fathermothergod is an unflinching exploration of personal loss and the boundaries of family and faith.

President of the Sarah Lawrence Alumnae/i Association from 2005-09, Stephanie Cooper earned her BA in 1965 and her MFA in 1976, and served as a member of the College's Board of Trustees. Her husband, Howard Weinberg, is a teacher, independent documentary filmmaker, and television journalist. He co-founded The Documentary Project at the Columbia Journalism School, where he also runs a documentary screening series and mentors students who make half-hour documentaries. The couple took a break from their busy schedules to talk about their experiences at The Writing Institute and discuss what it's like taking a class with their significant other.

After 25 years of living abroad, Sheila Miller Bernson '71 returned to the United States—and to Sarah Lawrence College. Armed with plenty of material courtesy of her time overseas, but saddled by the demands of the day-to-day, Sheila turned to The Writing Institute to help put her stories on paper. A few years and a few classes later, she now shares her reflections on her time around the table in this community of writers.

Muriel Weinstein was in her mid-eighties when she published her first children's book, "When Louis Armstrong Taught Me to Scat." She has since written a second book, titled "Play Louis Play: The True Story of a Boy and His Horn," which was a 2012 Junior Library Guild Selection, a recipient of the Paterson Prize, and a nominee for the Texas Bluebonnet Award. Muriel is a veteran Writing Institute student, and has participated in a number of poetry workshops at Sarah Lawrence College.