Meet The Instructor: Sinta Jimenez

“Meet The Instructor” introduces members to our workshop instructors. For the first installment, Marketing & Communications Intern Sarah Katz spoke with Sinta Jimenez, who will lead Queer Fiction over the course of four Mondays from 4/4-4/25.

The Writer’s Center: What brought you to the Center?

Sinta Jimenez: I've been teaching workshops at The Writer's Center since November 2012. I was invited by [former Program Manager] Zachary Fernebok, who I met while working at Writopia Lab in D.C. At the time, I was working primarily as a fashion and entertainment editor. And while now I own my own business related to digital strategy and branding, I still teach writing. It is my way of always keeping the dialogue of fiction and poetry in my life.

TWC: How would you describe your teaching style?

SJ: Encouraging, empowering, and intuitive. It's important for me to find out what the artistic goal is of my student, what they are trying to express or evoke. It's really working to try and help them achieve their goals. It's most important for me that my students feel free and creative, and once that is established, helping them grow as writers.

TWC: What are you reading right now?

SJ: Mysteries! Been on a kick. Always liked a good mystery, even since childhood. Back then I loved John Bellairs. Right now reading Keigo Higashino.

TWC: What are you writing now?

SJ: Working on a piece that currently has no title ... since about October. Fixing to be a short story.

TWC: What does your writing space look like?

SJ: Anywhere and anytime. When it strikes.

TWC: What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given and by whom?

SJ: “Good dialogue reads stylized.”—Ben Ehrenreich, an author and journalist, and one of my professors at Otis College of Art and Design's Graduate Writing Program.

Also, “Bah, fuck rules.”—Paul Vangelisti, an award-winning poet and my dean at Otis.

 

Sinta Jimenez is a writer, fine artist and fashion journalist. Her short stories, paintings, and poetry have been published in several literary magazines including Underground Voices, Otis Nebula, and The Sheepshead Review. With her hand in multiple projects, she founded the digital agency Social Buzz Pros and AMIHAN Life. She was formerly the Director of Social Media and Fashion Editor for Meets Obsession magazine as well as the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of Letters and Lullabies.