Testimonials
PRAISE FOR BARBARA’S TEACHING
"Barbara Baig's passion for teaching writing infuses every lesson she offers. She demystifies the most complex writing techniques and makes them accessible to all writers. Her courses have been the most valuable learning experience of my MFA in Creative Writing. I cannot wait to buy a book which distills her knowledge and provides her writing exercises."
—Lisa Robinson, M.D., Child Psychiatrist in private practice, Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
"Barbara is a wonderful and inspiring writing teacher, offering clear and helpful suggestions and enthusiastic support! Her techniques made me a better writer and a more confident minister, and will serve me well in this next phase of my life."
—Liz Walker, M.Div., host of Better Living on WCVB Television and former news anchor for CBS4 (WBZ-TV, Boston)
"I have been writing stories for children for many years and wrote many memoranda and briefs during my career as an attorney, but I didn't grasp the craft involved in creating powerful sentences until I took Barbara Baig's The Art of the Sentence course through the Lesley University MFA in Creative Writing Program. Barbara approached language not as a grammarian might, but as a writer must: as the stuff that we must master if we are to succeed in conveying our ideas and images to our readers. The class has been invaluable to my growth as a writer. I know that any guide to writing that Barbara authors will be a welcome and well thumbed addition to my bookshelf."
—Laurie A. Jacobs, author, A Box of Candles (Boyds Mills Press 2005), Winner of the 2005 National Jewish Book Award for Family Literature
www.lauriejacobs.com
"Barbara Baig is that rare writing teacher who has a great deal to offer experienced writers as well as those new to the craft. She inspires students and gives them the tools to hone their craft-no matter what level they begin on. Barbara's given me a new way to think about writing as well as smart techniques for improving my craft and my voice. I use what I learned from Barbara just about every day, and I'm a happier and smarter writer for it."
—Karen Rafinski, award-winning medical and science journalist
"Barbara is a master of the art and science of teaching students how to communicate through writing. During her twenty years at HDS she has guided hundreds of students through the process of learning to write, showing them how to take existing research and their own thoughts and integrate the two on paper."
—Susan Beth Dunton, former Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Harvard Divinity School
"Barbara's books and coaching have brought clarity and simplicity to my writing process and my writing. She is wise, kind, irreverent and funny. College and graduate school focused on what I wrote; Barbara helped me understand why and how I write."--Duncan Hilton
"Barbara reaches past all of the 'you can't do that' rules and introduces you to a smorgasbord of what you can."
—Jan Nerenberg, graduate of Lesley University's MFA Program in Creative Writing;
author, "Misako and the Dragons" <http://www.nwlitreview.org
"As a graduate from a respected MFA program, I had the tools and motivation to be a productive writer, but my work was undermined by strong negative critical voices in my head, echoes of certain professors from that program. I was plagued by self-doubt. In that crisis, Barbara helped me find confidence as a writer so I could pursue my craft again. Barbara is knowledgeable and experienced, of course, but she is also generous, and innovative at finding ways to inspire and encourage other writers. Thank you, Barbara!"--Carol S.
“I LOVED this class! Barbara turned on my writer’s brain. Now I see things around me like snapshots of a story waiting to be told.”
—Bonnie S., flight attendant
“Barbara’s workshop, The Practice of Writing, was one of the best taught and most helpful courses I have ever taken anywhere, on any subject.”
—Larry A., lawyer
“I have had MANY writing teachers. Barbara is by far the best. She allowed me to rediscover that I have both the passion and the discipline to write. I have been particularly grateful for the nonjudgmental, accepting environment in her classes. Even at its best—when writing is the most fun— it can sometimes be scary. The environment Barbara created in class banished the fear and left me free to explore more in my writing.”
—Kathleen C., social worker
“Barbara’s class made my imagination come alive after years of dormancy.”
—Carole N.
"Barbara instills understanding on an unconscious level—building writing muscles through repetitions of focused practice, the way a dancer masters complicated movements through targeted exercises.The combination of clear and thought-provoking content, and her technique of repeated practice insures a productive working knowledge for the writer."
—Marjorie Moon, graduate of Lesley University's MFA Program in Creative Writing