AUTHENTIC WRITING AND THE LEGACY OF FRED POOLE

Fred Poole often referred to himself as “the bad twin.” Even as a child, he felt uttrerly at odds with the upper-class waspy family into which he was born. He determined early on that he would be a writer, like his Pulitzer Prize-winning grandfather, and an exotic adventurer.

For the first 40-or-so years of his life Fred traveled the world from Haiti to Chad, Lebanon to Bangkok, on into the Philippines and Borneo, living by his pen and the seat of his pants.

During these years his two most successful books were the novel Where Dragons Dwell, and the political exposé Revolution in the Philippines.

Coming into his fifties, Fred’s attention became drawn to the visual arts and for some years he almost dropped writing in favor of attending art classes round the clock. It’s what originally brought him to Woodstock, New York, a haven to artists for over 100 years.

It was here that, finally, he settled, purchasing with a small inheritance a rambling old house in the village, continuing his art studies, but then also branching out into liberation theology, obtaining a masters from Boston College.

It was then, the story goes, in 1993, a second marriage having just dissolved, all the money gone, just Fred and his dog Claude left that Fred began to bring people together to write about the real stuff of their lives. “Authentic Writing” he called these workshops and quickly they became popular, expanding beyond his living room down into Manhattan.

Five years later, in 1998, Marta Szabo was living in a yoga ashram about 50 miles from Woodstock, hunting for new directions for her own writing. She came to a workshop with Fred, and was immediately hooked. This, she knew, was her writing home, a place where her writing could flourish.

For two years she came every week. And when she left the ashram in 2000 she called Fred. Six months later she moved into his Woodstock home. They married in 2001 and, united in their vision, embarked on 15 years of offering the Authentic Writing workshops in Woodstock, Manhattan, the Omega Institute, across the country, in Italy and England, and online.

During this time Fred wrote Authentic Writing, a Memoir on Creating Memoir; and The Aqua Mustang.

By 2015 Fred began to reduce his participation due to failing health, ushering in the times when, with his blessing, Marta would take over the helm.

In 2025 Marta began to offer the work under the refreshed name of Real Life Writing, and though it has come to bear the stamp of her own experience, it will forever reflect the rich and fertile world of Authentic Writing, the legacy of Fred Poole.