Behind the Masthead: Allegra Hyde
Lauren Mickey: You’re a prose editor at HFR – but what does
this mean? What are your main
responsibilities?
Allegra
Hyde: In the words of that strabismic wonder, Jean Paul Sartre,
“There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn
and taken away from us at dusk.”
LM: Are there any
writers, musicians, animals, theories, etc. that have all of your attention
and/or admiration, as of late?
AH: I like unicorns and post-structuralism.
LM: What are some techniques, themes, etc.
that you typically focus on - or return to - in your writing?
AH: In
retrospect, I’ve written quite a few stories about loneliness. Also about
people making immoral choices. Also about utopian communes. And, for reasons
unknown to me, I have a difficult time avoiding the word “erinaceous.” It just
slips in – burrows in, you might even say – so that it has appeared in almost
every story I have ever composed. Sometimes I’ll use the word several times a
page, and only catch it in revision. Maddening? Yes, and yet it is a comfort as
well. To be trailed by a word the way one might be followed by a starving cat,
or a robber, eventually becomes more of a ritual than an annoyance. You end up
feeding the cat some tuna that you happened to be carrying in your pocket. You
give the robber your grandmother’s sapphire necklace. Everyone is happy. You
feel less alone.
LM: How do you describe HFR to people who ask you
about it?
AH: 7″ by 10″ by 1/2″.
LM: What song(s) do
you have playing on repeat lately?
AH: Iggy Azalea's "Fancy."
AH: Iggy Azalea's "Fancy."
LM: Has working
at HFR changed the way you
read and/or write?
AH: Yes.
LM: What do you think
the color of your aura is? (I know nothing about auras, and I'm pretty sure
that they're not self-prescribed, but whatever…)
AH: Leopard print.
LM: What do you hope
for your someday-legacy to be?
AH: A novel – or ideally, multiple novels – that occasionally
appear on the shelves of musty bookstores, or as kindling for an expurgatory
bonfire in some terrible dystopian future. If people feel the need to my books
I will have done something right.
_____________________________________________________________________
Allegra Hyde’s writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Missouri Review, New England Review, Southwest Review, Passages North, Chattahoochee Review, and North American Review, among others. She curates similes at www.allegrahyde.com.