By Rebecca Schwab

Student Profile: Sarah Einstein

By Rebecca Schwab

The Creative Writing Program is proud of its students. Right now, we’re especially excited about the work of Sarah Einstein, a Non-fiction MFA student who has just finished her second year of the three-year program. She continually produces exceptional essays, and is a credit to our department and its faculty.

Einstein, a native of southern West Virginia, graduated from WVU with a Board of Regents Bachelor of Arts degree in Women’s Studies and English Literature before starting the MFA program here. After she receives her Master of Fine Arts degree next year, she plans on attending a PhD program for Creative Non-fiction at another university.

Her first published work, “Fearsome Beauty,” appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Fringe, an online literary journal which specializes in political and experimental work. This was followed by “The Way Things Go,” which was published in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Whitefish Review, a literary journal based in Montana “with a slant toward mountain culture” (Whitefish homepage). “Fearsome Beauty” was first workshopped in an undergraduate class here at WVU with Kevin Oderman, whom Einstein continues to work with. In fact, Einstein said she’s never taken a workshop with Oderman and not had an essay from that workshop published. “Kevin makes you break out of what’s expected,” Einstein explained, “he’s one of the main reasons I chose this program.”

Most recently, Einstein’s essay “Fat” was accepted by PANK Magazine, an online literary collective. Her essay will be published in the upcoming October issue. She also won a 2011 Pushcart Prize for her essay “Mot,” which was published in the 2009 edition of Ninth Letter, a literary and arts journal published out of the University of Illinois. Of this impressive accomplishment, Sarah humbly said, “A lot of talented people get nominated every year,” and she feels lucky to have won. Her winning essay “Mot” is a condensed version of a book-length work about her relationship with a homeless veteran named Mot, formerly known as Tom, whom she struggles to help despite his delicate psychological condition. Their friendship is often strained, and the reader feels Einstein’s frustrations as she negotiates between trying to improve Mot’s quality of life and pushing him too far and losing his trust. Through Einstein’s depiction, the reader comes to understand the qualities in Mot that are so redeeming—his intelligence, resourcefulness, humor, and fragility—and why she feels so compelled to help this man who pushes her away as often as he accepts her friendship.

Einstein explained that Mot agreed that she could write this, and she would never have done so without his blessing. Of their relationship and the essay that came from it (which makes readers, at times, worry for Einstein’s well-being), she said, “It was a weird life choice. People want to read about weird life choices. Since it is creative non-fiction, it was a given that I was not chopped into little pieces by the end.”

And thank goodness she wasn’t. Least of all, because we would lose a brilliant new voice in non-fiction, and also because she wouldn’t be able to make any more weird life choices for us to read about.