Alex Franco
Oyster River Pages: We often think of ourselves as writing or making art, but the process often changes or makes us as well. How do you feel like your writing or art makes you?
Alex Franco: Writing is a practice in introspection and observation simultaneously. My writing forces me to honestly look at myself, to be vulnerable—all honesty is vulnerable, and good writing demands it. But it also makes me be part of the world, to see it, because you cannot write honestly about what you cannot see. So my writing becomes a practice in seeing, both inwards and outwards. And like light, we change when observed.
ORP: Do you believe that hope is a luxury, a responsibility, a danger, or something else? Why?
AF: Hope is a necessity, and—I would add—a habit. It’s easy to be hopeful when things are going well. But when things turn, that’s when hope is needed most. It’s like gratitude—you have to practice it every day. Especially in times as trying as these. Hope is the motivator, the fuel that allows us to work for something better. Hope is a lifeline.
ORP: If you could choose one writer or artist, living or dead, as a best friend or mentor, who would it be? Why?
AF: My answer, which I give with no hesitation, would be Margaret Atwood. When I discovered her poetry while doing an assignment in high school, I was fascinated by what she did with language. The images she crafted, the ideas she played with, remain with me still. It prompted me to try writing (imitative, adolescent) poetry, and to explore her novels as well. While my focus would eventually shift to fiction, Margaret Atwood was the first writer to inspire me to write, and her novels--finely crafted pieces of thought-provoking art--remain some of my favorites to this day.
ORP: Years from now, when historians look back on the art and writing of the early 21st century, how do you think they will articulate the zeitgeist?
AF: The zeitgeist will come to be defined by resistance. The political and ideological shift happening in America--growing wider by the day--manifests in work that deals frankly with issues such as police brutality and racial inequality. As the world of literature becomes more diverse, it becomes more truthful, the story it tells of the world more complete. We are living in the revolution, and the art we make now will reflect that decades later.
ORP: What do you think is the most essential advice that most writers and artists ignore?
AF: I think this applies to everyone, not just writers: We all need to work on cultivating a beginner’s mindset. I first encountered this concept while studying Zen Buddhism in college. It’s the idea that we should approach all things—work and school and art—with the mind of someone doing it for the first time. Free of judgment, open to the experience, open to learning and admitting our own limitations—that is what is meant, in my understanding, by a beginner’s mindset. By cultivating this when writing, we allow ourselves the chance to slip off the yoke of rules and expectations. We can do whatever we want, because we don’t know any better! As a writer this can be really freeing. It also means that when it comes time for editing, we are open to the possibility that we don’t know everything and that there is a way to improve upon a piece of work. In tandem, these principles can be powerful creative tools.
