When Lianne Stokes first entered Susan Shapiro’s “Writing for NYC Newspapers, Magazines, Web” class here in 2007, she was an an unpublished 28-year-old virgin still figuring out how to become a proper adult. When she entered the class 9 years later, she was a published author visiting from Austin, Texas, to speak to Shapiro’s Monday night class about her new memoir “Below Average: A Life Way Under The Bar,” just published from Heliotrope Books.
In the book, Stokes chronicles the path to finding her self-identity. She talks about her twice failed stint at an ad agency, a battle with depression, and her constant hunt for “the perfect guy,” which led to her to be a 30-year-old virgin.
“I had hung my hat on being a writer,” Stokes said about her inspiration to keep writing the book. “And then it became a thing of ‘Well what am I going to be? This chick whose single and an older virgin that did nothing with her life?’ It’s about really wanting to make your dreams happen. I’m like a late-in-life Lindsay Lohan, without the coke.”
Stokes, who has written for Interview Magazine and Hello Giggles, said the truth was always the best stuff for her to write when creating “Below Average.” Now at 37, she doesn’t think old age is a requirement to have a memoir.
“I just think you have to be interesting, and you have to dance for the people per se and have the stories,” Stokes said in reference to the process of writing her memoir. Office love triangles and breaking into a coworker’s email are a few of the stories Stokes recounted to a classroom full of students.
The process of writing her memoir wasn’t always easy though. Stokes experienced a major breakthrough about what to tackle and write when she met with Shapiro for office hours one evening.
”We were walking, and I had wrote an article for the last print issue of Playgirl about being a 30-year-old virgin, and [Shapiro] told me, ‘Why don’t you stop writing all these articles and essays and write a book,’” Stokes recalled.
After the semester ended, she and a few other students in Shapiro’s class started a weekly workshop where they shared their work and experience. It is here that Stokes would get input for her book.
She then met Royal Young through the group, another former New School student who would go on to introduce her to the editors at Heliotrope Books, the independent book publishing company in the East Village responsible for her book “Below Average.”
As Stokes wrapped up her time in Shapiro’s the Monday night class, she told the group to fight for what they want and never give up on their dreams.
“I feel like I’ve seen the bottom enough, and it’s always gotten better,” Stokes said. “I have a lot of hope now. And I want other women to have that and men as well. You have to keep putting yourself out there and you have to work your butt off, you have to keep trying and you have to believe in yourself without being cocky.”
Photo by Orlando Mendiola
Orlando is the Photography and Web Production editor for The New School Free Press. He is a junior studying Journalism + Design.
