LIZA KLEINMAN is a freelance writer who lives with her family in Portland, Maine. She has a B.A. in English from Wesleyan University and a M.F.A. in fiction writing from Indiana University. She published her first short story, “Married to a Stranger,” in Redbook in 1986. Her fiction has since been published in a variety of magazines, including Fifth Wednesday Journal, Crossborder, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Portland Magazine. In 2008, one of her short stories appeared in the anthology “Writes of Passage: Coming-of-Age Stories and Memoirs” from The Hudson Review. The collection, which includes work by Tennessee Williams and Wendell Berry, is used in The Hudson Review's Writers in the Schools program in the greater New York City area, and in similar programs in other cities. She also writes language arts educational materials for elementary, middle, and high school students. Azalea, Unschooled is her first novel.

 

 

LIZA KLEINMAN says that some time around the age of six, she decided to be a writer, and she has stuck with it ever since. She wrote fiction throughout her childhood on Long Island, New York, and kept at it in college and graduate school. 

 

Her first short story was published in Redbook while she was living in Bloomington, Indiana. She published a few more short stories, and wrote for a nonprofit organization that was creating an online elementary school curriculum.

After moving to Portland, Maine, she continued to work as a freelance writer, mostly doing language arts educational materials, but occasionally other work, as well: she has written for a business that makes mystery parties for kids; created a logic puzzle for Highlights; and sold a joke to a greeting card company.

 

In 2008, one of her short stories appear in the anthology Writes of Passage: Coming-of-Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review. The collection, which includes work by Tennessee Williams and Wendell Berry, is used in The Hudson Review's Writers in the Schools program in the greater New York City area, and in similar programs in other cities. Her fiction has also appeared in other magazines, including Fifth Wednesday Journal, Crossborder, Hayden's Ferry Review, and Portland Magazine. Azalea, Unschooled is her first novel.

 

She first heard about unschooling from a child on a playground, and became curious about the lives of people who challenge the assumptions most of us live with. She says, “Being unschoolers gives the kids different opportunities, and more independence, than if they had been attending school. But as one of the characters in the book says, ‘There are all kinds of ways to learn a lesson.’”

 

 

 

 

SIX MINUTES WITH LIZA KLEINMAN:

 

Taking the stage with LitPick’s Six Minutes with an Author is Liza Kleinman! Liza is a freelance writer specializing in language arts educational materials. Recently, Liza accomplished her goal of writing a novel with the funny, realistic children’s book Azalea Unschooled. She ice skates, flies kites, and tells stories in Portland, Maine with her husband and daughter.

 

How did you get started writing?

In first grade, I wrote a story in which the narrator meets a lot of barking dogs. In my mind, it was hilarious. I've been writing ever since.

Who influenced you?

The people who wrote The Muppet Show. When I was a kid, it seemed like the height of wit and sophistication. It still does, more or less, especially the episode where Gonzo takes over the show to hold a dance marathon. The episode is a great example of how to create humor and tension by weaving story lines, and of the comedic possibilities in what remains unsaid, especially when it involves asparagus.

Do you have a favorite book?

One of my very favorites is The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. It's about a twelve-year-old girl growing up in the American South in the 1940s. That description doesn't do the book justice, though. The novel is complex and beautiful and unsettling. I probably read it once a year.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

Write! Don't fall into the trap, as I so often do, of thinking that other things count as writing. Planning to write later is not writing. Telling people you're a writer is not writing. Thinking up great new ice cream flavors is not writing. Only writing is writing. And I'm going to do it soon. Any time now. What do you think about coffee ice cream with pieces of coffee cake in it?

Where is your favorite place to write?

I write on a laptop in my living room, either on the couch or sitting at a table. The couch is comfortable and relaxing. The table gives me a nice view of the local cats waging turf wars in our backyard.

What else would you like to tell us?

I'm writing a second middle-grade novel. I never like to talk about what I'm working on while I'm working on it, but I think the book is going to be funny, and a little dark. Kind of like that barking dog story I mentioned.

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Thanks for joining us, Liza! We think that coffee ice cream with pieces of coffee cake in it sounds delicious! We’re looking forward to your next ice cream flavor, er, book. ;)