Smith Creative Writers Reading Series: Allegra Hyde
On origins, structure, and dystopia
Allegra Hyde is the author of the story collection The Last Catastrophe, a New York Times Editors' Choice selection. Her debut novel Eleutheria was named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, named a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award, and featured on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Her first story collection, Of This New World, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Hyde has received four Pushcart Prizes and an O. Henry Prize. Her work has also been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. Her fiction, nonfiction, and humor writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, American Short Fiction, BOMB, and many other publications. She has received fellowships and grants from the MacDowell Artist Residency, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, The Elizabeth George Foundation, the Lucas Artist Residency Program, the Jentel Foundation, The Studios at Key West, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the U.S. Fulbright Commission, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Smith College.
Gabriel Ballard, a senior in the BFA in Creative Writing Program at Penn State Behrend, interviewed fiction writer Allegra Hyde in anticipation of her visit to Behrend as part of the Smith Creative Writers Reading Series. Hyde will read from her work on Thursday, March 20th, at 6:00 p.m. in the Metzgar building.
Gabriel Ballard (GB): What got you into writing? Were you always interested in it, or did you find a passion for it over time?
Allegra Hyde (AH): I tried not to become a writer for a long time. Writing seemed like a hard way to make a living, so I decided to study economics in college. But economics ended up making very little sense to me. I had trouble connecting abstract economic concepts to the world I knew. Fiction, though, made a lot of sense – even when it involved dragons or extraterrestrials or malfunctioning hippie communes. So I resigned myself to my fate and became a writer.
GB: I've read three of your stories – "The Tough Part," "Afterglow," and "The Future is a Click Away" – and they're each structured noticeably differently from one another. Do you often experiment with different writing styles? Does it depend on the type of story you aim to tell?
AH: Short stories are an incredible canvas for experimentation, that's what I love about them. You get to invent new characters, new situations, in the space of just a few pages. Then you can move on to the next. The style in which a story is told, though, does need to fit the subject matter. For instance, my story "The Tough Part" – which is about a fractious couple wearing a moose costume – made sense as a first-person narrative from the perspective of the husband. I wanted readers to feel what it was like to be inside that moose costume. "The Future is a Click Away," on the other hand, is about a futuristic Amazon-like delivery service gone awry. It made sense for that story to be told in the first-person plural perspective. Members of a community all voice their experience of this delivery service as it slowly takes over their lives.
GB: I've noticed some of your work seems to have recurring themes. For instance, there's the theme of a dystopian future. Are there particular themes that you find you enjoy writing about?
AH: I'm actually interested in our dystopian present: the unchecked consumerism that has ransacked the earth, the technofascism that steals our resources and our time, the isolation that comes from a culture built around exploitation. The stories in my second collection, The Last Catastrophe, take place in a slightly distorted reality, one that isn't so much a future as it is a translation and an exaggeration of what it feels like to be alive now.
That said, I also think it's important to use fiction as a way of moving forward. That's why I emphasize hope and compassion in my stories. That's why I emphasize community as a source of resilience. That's an important theme for me, too.
GB: What are some of your favorite books or authors that inspire you as a writer?
AH: Off the top of my head: Octavia Butler, Julie Otsuka, Denis Johnson.
GB: What would you say has changed the most about your writing over time?
AH: You know, no one has ever asked me that before. My writing has probably changed in all kinds of ways, but something that stands out is my commitment to writing toward what I believe in. Being playful, experimenting, exploring are still a part of my creative practice, but I'm more conscious now of having limited time on this earth. When I write, I want to make every word count.
GB: What advice would you give a young writer just starting to write fiction today?
AH: Read widely and diversely. Write in lots of different styles. Pay attention to the world around you. Ask questions. Listen closely. Take notes. Follow your curiosity. Find a writing community. Stay hydrated.
GB: Lastly, what are you currently working on?
AH: I'm working on my fourth book. It's a multi-genre novel that combines science fiction, historical fiction, and autofiction. I had better get back to working on it!
For more information visit: behrend.psu.edu/readings
