issues - Seton Hall University

Educator Unlocks the Mystery of Writing
As many aspiring fiction writers can attest, the road to being
published is often bumpy and circuitous. With two mystery
novels out and several stories in progress, teacherturned-writer
Diane Sawyer, M.A. ’65 keeps her seatbelt
fastened, stays on course and enjoys the view along the way.
Sawyer, like the heroine of her first book, The Montauk
Mystery, grew up in a small town on Long Island. “From an
early age, I was immersed in the flexibility and beauty of language.
My neighbors in Greenport were immigrants who spoke
German, Polish or Italian to one another, but English to their
children,” she says. “My mother, who came to America from
Ireland, wouldn’t say, ‘She has on a nice dress,’ but rather,
‘Mrs. Smith is all dressed up like Paddy’s pet pig.’ ”
Sawyer graduated from the State University of New York at
Albany in 1961 with a bachelor’s degree in Latin and a minor
in French and secondary education. She and
her husband, Robert, then moved
downstate, where she began a 25-year
career with the East Ramapo
School District. While she
enjoyed teaching French to
high school students, Sawyer
had the desire to return to
the classroom herself.
“I was aware of Seton
Hall University’s excellent
reputation, and when
I visited the campus, I
liked the intimate feel
of it,” Sawyer says. She
took classes on Saturdays
and during the
summer, including
16 credits in French
literature with an
adjunct instructor,
Ray Duchesneau,
who had a teaching
style she enjoyed.
“He didn’t just
come in and lecture,
although he was
well-prepared and
knowledgeable,”
she recalls. “There
was a special kind of
class participation that
I thrived on.”
After graduating from
Seton Hall with a master’s
degree in French, Sawyer found
Alumni Standouts
Author Diane Sawyer, M.A. ’65 finds inspiration in her globe-trotting
adventures and close to home. She is working on her third mystery novel,
as well as an anthology of global heroines.
the classroom beckoning her again, this time to the Sorbonne
in Paris. One of 12 people worldwide chosen for a special
phonetics program, she honed her grammar skills and improved
her French accent while her husband cared for their family
back in New York.
Several years later, she began a doctoral program in
Medieval studies at Fordham University, and received her
Ph.D. in 1987. Sawyer chose to concentrate on the Middle
Ages, she says, because this era filled the gap between her
undergraduate studies of the ancient world and her graduate
studies on the modern age.
Until the late ’80s, Sawyer’s professional career centered on
education. She taught French, English and Latin at the high
school level, and was coordinator of her district’s English as a
Second Language Program, which served about 120 students in
grades K-12. After her husband opted for early retirement in
1987, the couple moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. For a time,
Sawyer remained active in the educational arena as a consultant,
but then decided to write instead — something
she had long wanted to try her hand at.
Sawyer pursued this dream in much the
same way that she had others — by taking
classes. Not only did she learn
about the craft of writing, she also
began a writers’ group with two
classmates; their friendship is
still going strong today. “The
best advice I can give new writers
is to join a group,” Sawyer
says. “We share ideas, discuss
the business side of writing
and provide honest critiques
of each other’s work.”
While Sawyer’s first two
published works were
nonfiction, she savors the
literary license inherent
in writing fiction. Her
favorite genres are mystery
and, for the youth
audience, adventure.
Writing for young
readers (especially her
target group, 8-to-12year-old
girls), she
says, presents many
challenges.
“Kids are very
smart,” she says. “You
can’t sneak things by
them. The writing has
to capture their imagination,
and most of all, you
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