Behind the Masthead: Editors at Work

When we're not reading, we're writing. This is where the magic happens.

"This chair was my husband's grandpa's.  The sun hits it perfectly in the late afternoon and I just sink in and scribble away before everyone else gets home at night.  At least one dog is usually around to lay on my feet and its close to the record player so I can be swallowed up by tunes while I work." -Chelsea H., Editor

"I bought this desk for $5 dollars at a surplus store, and the typewriter was the best goodwill find in my own personal history of thrifting. The desk faces East and overlooks the McDowell Mountain Range from my 3rd floor patio. The desk has a shelf underneath that holds my space heater for chilly nights - also, my cat, Thesis, loves hide there and fall asleep on the cool metal." - Kyle B., Poetry Editor

"I was going to post a picture of my desk, with its incense holder and neat pile of books and potted cacti and shaded lamp, but this feels way more honest. More often than not, I do my writing on the dining room table - one of my housemates barely visible behind a messy pile of overdo library books, a full bag of snacks close by (usually less respectable than pretzels), a pen "borrowed" from my latest hotel stay on hand, and one of my housemates' many pets stalking behind my laptop screen." - Dana D., Editor

"'Isn't the exterior an old intimacy lost in the shadow of memory?' -Gaston Bachelard" - Alex M., International Editor

"My workspace is in the living area of my apartment. I'm usually crosslegged on the small sofa typing away. I love this comfy spot because of its natural lighting, bright colors and my chirpy parakeet who sits by the window." - Jackie B., Poetry Editor

"This cozy space, nestled in the comforting bosom of my television, serves as my central writing zone, or WriteZone. To keep this brief I'll stick to an inventory of the present: a desk procured from the freshly-soaped back alley of a Christian university; a chair mined from a Xerox subsidiary--well worn in the pivotal places; a lamp and shade with unknown origins; roughly 84 unread Cease & Desist letters from local delis concerning an undisclosed personal matter; and one cat--a known associate and a cappella partner of a myriad of local shelter-bound street cats." - Gary G., Prose Editor

"My workspace is in my living room. The desk has a fake marble top. I got a nice deal on it from the furniture store I bought it from because it was damaged, but it's nothing you can see from the picture. I always keep candy at my desk, mostly to hand out to people that I ignore when I'm done ignoring them, but I also occasionally will have a piece. There are two pictures above my desk. One is a picture of a plant and is framed. One is a portrait a DJ did of me at a party. The portrait is done on a small paper plate. The fake tree in the corner is paramount to me sitting down to do anything at the desk for any significant amount of time. I like to pretend I can harness some kind of creative energy from it." - Dustin P., Editor

Behind the Masthead: Allegra Hyde

This week, we get the behind-the-scenes on prose editor, 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."

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.

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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.