Blue-collar background informs Cedar Rapids native’s fiction
CEDAR RAPIDS — Unlike a lot of authors, Keith Pilapil Lesmeister didn’t set out to become a writer from an early age. Instead, the Cedar Rapids native was well into adulthood before he realized he had a knack for storytelling. While in his late 20s and working in the admissions office at Luther College in Decorah, Lesmeister said he decided to record some of the “wild and outlandish” family stories he’d heard growing up in Cedar Rapids. He started to write down some of that family lore, while at the same time taking a few writing-related classes at Luther. It was a class on creative writing that helped light the spark for him. “It felt very liberating, in the sense that, you know, instead of airing out all of my family's dirty laundry, I could … instead just make things up and call it fiction, which was far more liberating to me,” Lesmeister said. Nearly two decades later, Lesmeister has turned that interest in fiction into a full-fledged career. He recently released his second collection of short stories, “Ask Me About the Money,” in addition to working full time as a writing and literature instructor at Northeast Iowa Community College.
