Lenore Weiss Writes with Experience, Depth & Creativity
Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills.
Lenore Weiss will take the Member Spotlight before our September speaker, Cheral Stivers. Get tickets here.
Lenore Weiss is a passionate and accomplished writer with a diverse background in multiple genres. Her work has captivated readers with its depth, creativity, and emotional resonance. She has worked at a number of careers including breakfast cook, waitress, secretary, journalist editor, salesperson, factory worker, camp counselor, technical writing, web content manager, tutor, and mother. She came to adulthood during the computer revolution and learned her desktop chops on some of the first Apple machines, also served as an editor of the Morrow User Group newsletter, and has been writing throughout her life. Her first published piece of writing was a poem entitled “Spring,” posted on the bulletin board of her third grade class.
Lenore serves as the Associate Creative Nonfiction (CNF) Editor for the Mud Season Review and lives in Oakland, California. She earned an MFA in fiction from San Francisco State University. Past poetry collections form a trilogy about love, loss, and being mortal. Her most recent poetry collection is Video Game Pointers (WordTech Editions, 2024), and her environmental novel, Pulp into Paper (Atmosphere Press, 2024) Awards include: Finalist in Los Galesburg Novella contest (2019); First place, flash fiction for Holding on to Fringes of Love, AQPress, (2018), and the Clark-Gross Award for best-novel-in-progress (2017). She self-published The Glimmerine, an environmental urban fantasy for young readers and is currently working on a new novel.
Visit Lenore on the web!
Excerpt from Pulp into Paper (Atmosphere Press, 2024):
Vernon worked at a paper mill where trees up to one hundred feet tall met their final death by chemical process. The resulting product, besides tissue and toilet paper, was wastewater dumped into a nearby stream. Hardly anyone remembered when it flowed clean. It used to be called the Silver River. Now, everyone calls it the Mud, outlined on either side by rows of loblolly pine, trees tall and as straight as four or five flagpoles stacked on top of each other. The radio deejay played a song Vernon used to sing with his band. He hummed along as a red cardinal flitted across the road.
And now a few questions:
What’s the most important piece of writing advice that you could give to other writers?
The most important piece of writing advice I can give is this: “let it sit and come back.” Everything always looks different (and sometimes better) the next day. If not, follow the trail that you left for yourself to follow.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Oddly enough, I wanted to be a writer. I loved the sensation of paper between my fingers, turning pages of a book, and listening to people speak, always wondering how they moved from one subject to the next so easily.
What are your writing habits? (One well crafted question) (time, location, environment, motivation)
I write in my study every day in the morning for several hours or until I can’t stand it. On off days, I pace around, make coffee, or check Facebook until I get back to work. On good days, it’s easy sailing, but that’s not often the case!
How long have you been part of CWC, and what does membership mean to you?
After being isolated at the computer for most of my time, I look forward to being around other writers. We’re generally a shy lot who lack social skills and understand each other’s obsessions. I would enjoy meeting other writers in my genre (literary fiction) together with editorial editorial exchanges, submission advice, and being a good buddy.
Meet Lenore at our return to LIVE meetings tomorrow with Carol Stivers!
