A new semester brings new faces and fresh opportunities to the students of Stern College. This year, the English department welcomes Professor Sophie Rosenblum, who will be teaching a fiction writing course during the Fall 2014 semester, much to the excitement of creative writing majors and students across the disciplines. Her interest in fiction, she said, began around age ten.
A new semester brings new faces and fresh opportunities to the students of Stern College. This year, the English department welcomes Professor Sophie Rosenblum, who will be teaching a fiction writing course during the Fall 2014 semester, much to the excitement of creative writing majors and students across the disciplines. Her interest in fiction, she said, began around age ten.“I think what drew me to fiction was the ability to express my feelings about things through another lens,” said Rosenblum. “Writing fiction allows you to combine your imagination with your emotions, which is pretty much the best thing I can think of doing.”
As an undergraduate, Rosenblum majored in English with a concentration in creative writing. After graduation, she pursued careers in the field, teaching literature courses and writing workshops at Rice University, the University of Houston, and Florida State University.
Rosenblum’s enthusiasm plus her solid background in the field ensures her students a great learning environment in which to explore the craft of writing fiction. “I plan to cover the basics of plot, character, and setting, but also move on to explore the ways in which we, as writers, can successfully break some of those rules,” said Rosenblum. “I hope students will come away having read and written a range of short stories and having found a sense of confidence in their work.”
In addition to teaching, Rosenblum is involved with several writing projects. She is currently working on a novel for her PhD, which she hopes to finish in the next year. She serves as a web editor for the literary journal NANO Fiction and is a freelance writer for several magazines and newspapers. She also writes flash fiction (fiction under a thousand words), and she is currently working on a flash fiction collection.
When she isn’t writing or teaching, Rosenblum, a great fan of dogs, likes to spend her leisure time at a dog park. “I don’t own a dog – yet – but I really love watching dogs socialize,” she said. Her other hobbies include cooking, travelling with her husband, and of course, reading. Her current favorite book is The Scenic Route by Binnie Kirshenbaum. “I often return to passages in it when I’m stuck with my own writing,” she said.
A native New Yorker whose father taught at NYU, Rosenblum grew up knowing several of the universities in the area, and is excited to be working here at Stern College. “[When] I visited Stern College for the interview, it was very clear that Yeshiva creates an environment that is both academically rich and nurturing,” she said. “Having attended a small liberal arts college with those same values, I feel very lucky to be included in this wonderful community of people.”