Written by Kendall McKinnon, photos by Nick Thomsen
Twenty-five years ago, Professor Jonathan Rabb never thought he’d become a writer nor was it what he wanted to do. Possibly acting, singing or studying 16th and 17th-century natural law, but not writing. Now Rabb has taught the craft at SCAD for nine years. How did he get here? “Luck,” Rabb said.
Rabb always reminds his students of the inexorable surprise: the ending that surprises the reader, but presumably had to happen. It’s safe to say that his own life brought him to the same kind of ending. When Rabb teaches, he breaks down writing techniques such as this one, shows his students the timeless ways of great writers and shares his own experiences in the world of novel writing. The passion behind his teaching suggests that writing has always been Jonathan Rabb’s plan, but that isn’t the case. Rather, a series of seemingly unrelated paths that ended up converging and leading him to his very own inexorable surprise.
[Nick Thomsen/scaddistrict.com]
When asked how he got to where he is now, Rabb jokingly answered, “Who knows.” What he does know is where he’s been. Coming from a line of long-time historians, Rabb’s fascination with the past was almost genetically predisposed. From early on, Rabb was a natural academic side and performer. As an undergraduate at Columbia, he did a lot of musical theater but missed history. So, Rabb went to Yale for a graduate degree in political theory before going on to teach in the same field. By this time, he’d satisfied both of his loves individually, but something was still missing. That was when he discovered fiction.
“I discovered in historical fiction, and in writing fiction itself, that I could take that part of me that loved that academic research about living in a moment in time, but also bring that part of me that loves to inhabit characters, act, and perform,” Rabb said. “So, historical fiction was just perfect.” Of course. Even though the progression seems unnatural from an outside perspective, there’s a through-line, and to him, “It makes perfect sense.”
From there, Rabb began writing professionally. One thing led to another [running into an old friend on the street] and, luckily, teaching came back into his life again. Rabb began by teaching novel writing at NYU and found SCAD along the way [with his wife] when they moved to Savannah.
When discussing how teaching writing began affecting his own work, “It keeps you honest,” Rabb said. As he continues to teach writing courses at SCAD, Rabb shares his story with his students. Most students pursuing the arts are searching for their purpose, and it’s helpful to hear from one of their own mentors, that it’s not realistic to have things figured out. Being an artist is a shared experience, no matter the age or maturity. Writers will always have moments of panic, painters will always have moments of fear and directors will always have moments of defeat. Jonathan Rabb knows this and knows that his students want honesty and, more importantly, vulnerability. “I think it’s powerful for a student to see a professor who’s been at it for twenty-five years professionally say, ‘I don’t know. I’m worried. This hurts,'” Rabb said.
To Rabb, the student-teacher relationship at SCAD is symbiotic; his students influence him just as much as he influences them. “When I taught political theory, I was the professor and they were the students. At SCAD, I look at my students as colleagues,” Rabb said. He treats his students as such and opens up his own vulnerability to the rest of the classroom. “Writing is hard,” Rabb said.
The best part about the inexorable surprise is that it doesn’t have to end there. Since teaching at SCAD, Jonathan Rabb has established himself as a valuable professor, but this might not be his ending. After all, acting wasn’t his end, and political theory wasn’t either. The world and all it has to offer is open to him, is open to us. And if we get lucky, maybe we can have it all.
