Cherry Hill native and author Paul Lisicky isn’t one to rely on his old writing tricks.
He approaches each new project with a set of fresh eyes and an amateur’s perspective. But there’s been one theme that permeates his body of work: how people negotiate and survive loss.
“That’s been a constant in all my books, and any other theme — identity, or the search for home— feels somehow connected to that,” the author said.
Lisicky’s latest work, “Later: My Life at the Edge of the World,” chronicles a charged time in his life. The memoir follows Lisicky’s move in the early 1990s to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where a palpable sense of community had developed against the backdrop of sickness and death as the AIDS crisis unfolded. The book publishes on March 17.
Writing was never the plan for Lisicky. He thought his path might lead to city planning, but by the time he attended Cherry Hill High School East, he was convinced music was the end game. He taught himself the keyboard and guitar and began writing his own music.
While attending Loyola University in Maryland, Lisicky took a creative writing class on a whim. His instructor followed him down the hall after class one day to inform him he had a real talent for writing. Initially unsure if the professor was joking, Lisicky took the words to heart and became an English major.
He transferred to Rutgers-New Brunswick to complete his English degree. At the time, Lisicky wasn’t certain where that might lead; he just knew he wouldn’t be satisfied as some sort of business administrator or office manager. He needed to create.
Upon graduating, Lisicky took a job as a technical writer. He counteracted the office gig by waking up at 5 a.m. to write creatively for an hour before work, but he ultimately knew it wasn’t the life he wanted to lead.
Lisicky was accepted to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he earned his MFA and was awarded a national arts fellowship. It came with an endowment that led him to Provincetown, where he spent the next year of his life devoted solely to writing.
Since that time, Lisicky has taught creative writing at several different universities and published five books, with “Later: My Life at the Edge of the World” serving as his sixth. He said he long considered writing about his years in Provincetown but couldn’t find the right perspective.
Then Lisicky’s father became ill with pneumonia in 2015. The sixth months that followed before his father’s passing left the author feeling emotionally raw. He needed something to work on and tend to, so four weeks after his father’s death, Lisicky channelled his grief into writing.
In 1991, when Lisicky moved to Provincetown, the community was a haven and refuge for people dealing with HIV and AIDs. Lisicky was just coming of age as an artist and a member of the LGBT community. A self-described loner, he said at a time when sickness and death had the area in its grip, community suddenly felt necessary.
Lisicky’s book explores that community, which bonded through hyper-awareness about the fragility of life.
“Something really unique and inexpressible happened in those years,” he said.
By the mid 1990s, drugs to treat HIV and AIDS had progressed to a point where fewer and fewer people were dying, and the culture of the community changed. While that period isn’t easily duplicated, Lisicky’s hope is that his memoir will show people there’s a different way of life.
“I simply want readers to realize this important event happened, and it’s still impacting us,” Lisicky explained.
On Wednesday, March 25 at 7 p.m., Lisicky will read from his book at Rutgers-Camden’s Digital Commons. The event is free and open to the public.
There’s also a book tour on the horizon: Lisicky said he feeds off the energy in the room during a reading.
“I love the possibility of connection that can happen.”
To learn more about Lisicky, visit http://www.paullisicky.net/.
