When Caren Lissner comes to the Secaucus Public Library for three dates in April, she won’t be coming at the editor-in-chief of the Hudson Reporter chain of newspapers – which includes the Secaucus Reporter as one of its eight papers. Instead, Lissner will don her other hat as a published creative writer and will take on the role of facilitator for three writing workshops to be held on April 5, 12 and 26.
Through these three sessions, Lissner hopes to help local writers explore some of the various forms of creative writing, and perhaps teach people how to get such pieces published.
As the founder and coordinator of the Hoboken Writer’s Group, Lissner has been involved deeply in working with other writers as part of an effort to bring out the most in their work. Lissner started the group in 1995, and after some shifting of people, the group settled down to eight regulars who consistently worked together to improve each other’s writing.
Lissner also has published essays, fiction and satire in magazines and newspapers including the New York Times, Harper’s, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Jane Magazine.
Lissner hopes to share such experiences during the Secaucus library workshops, delving into various forms of creative writing such as fiction, personal essays, humor and poetry.
As with her group in Hoboken, Lissner expects to find writers in Secaucus that are at all levels of the creative process – from shy poets to more established writers. Since many people have already signed up for the workshop, Lissner said she will likely concentrate on more general themes.
“We’ll see what people’s interests are, where they are in their writing and what they like to write about,” Lissner said last week.
Once she gets a sense of people’s level and interest, she can help them explore where they might go with their work, including how to market their materials.
She’ll also talk about what it is like to be a writer. “Most importantly, I want people to know that if a person writes anything, that person is a writer and should be proud of it,” she said.
She said she wants people not to feel isolated as writers, and she wants to help authors express themselves and readers to learn from what authors have to express.
Has publishing experience
Lissner has had her humorous fiction and personal essays published in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jane Magazine and Harper’s. She recently completed a novel that is making the rounds to various publishers.
Although she was once a regular columnist for the daily newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia – where she obtained her degree in English with a concentration in writing seven years ago – Lissner got her first professional publishing credit just as she was ready to leave school.
Motivation to send to the Philadelphia Inquirer came as a result of what she called “jealousy.”
“Someone else in college had an essay published on the opinion page of the newspaper, and I said, ‘I can do that,'” Lissner said.
She met one of the editors at a conference for area student journalists and showed him her work.
“He said it was good,” Lissner said. “By the time I got home I had a message on my answering machine saying one of my pieces had been accepted.”
Raised in Matawan and Freehold in Monmouth County, Lissner said she had written or thought about writing since she was 12 years old.
“Nearly everything I see becomes a potential story to me,” she said. “Either a news story, a piece of fiction or an essay.” Lissner says writing about personal experiences in life can often lead to revelations about universal experiences, and she is particularly interested in essays or remembrance pieces.
Two such pieces won her first place in column writing from the New Jersey Press Association last year. They had appeared in the Current, the Reporter’s arts and entertainment magazine (www.hudsoncurrent.com).
To date, she has published only one fictional story – in Jane Magazine, a national publication, two years ago. “It is very, very hard to publish fiction,” she said. “There are not many outlets.”
Her experience with Jane Magazine, however, gave Lissner insight into the peculiarities of publishing. She said she had entered her story in a Jane Magazine fiction contest. The story did not win. After some time passed, she looked at the story again.
“I still thought it was a good story,” she said.
She submitted it to the magazine again, and they accepted it. Oddly enough, she received twice as much payment for the story as she would have if she had won the prize.
In 1997, Lissner attended Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College in Vermont, one of the most prestigious writing workshops in the country, and found people there at all levels, some shy, some more advanced.
Many of the writers from rural areas came to the conference because they claimed people back home didn’t understand them. These writers were particularly grateful to find a place where they could be understood, and that made them feel inspired.
Lissner said she hopes to bring such inspiration to writers at the Secaucus Library Workshop. She said there is a possibility of more advanced workshops over the summer if the April workshops draw interest, although those details have not been decided yet.
For more information about the workshops, call the library at 330-2083. You can e-mail Lissner at clissner@hudsonreporter.com.