We caught up with Peterborough native Allegra Hyde for a quick Q and A. Hyde’s, new book, “Of This New World,” is out now.
Q: Your debut story collection, “Of This New World,” covers a lot of ground — it starts in the Garden of Eden and ends in a futuristic Mars colony — but all the stories are linked by the theme of utopia. What got you interested in this topic?
A: I can trace this interest directly to my time as a student at ConVal High School. In my U.S. History class with Bob Marshall, I was tasked with writing an essay on Fruitlands, a proto-vegan commune founded in Massachusetts in 1843. I became fascinated by the conflict between the community’s lofty ideals and the practical concerns of living.
Fruitland’s participants admirably gave up animal products and labor—but they also planned to survive on fruit through a New England winter! You might say I caught the utopia bug, because I’ve spent the past decade finding ways to immerse myself in modern day utopian initiatives. I backpacked around New Zealand hippie enclaves, for instance. And over the past year I lived in Bulgaria, once home to largest utopian initiative ever: Communism. I’m continually fascinated by the audacity people have to try living in alternative ways, despite the risk of failure.
Q: Speaking of ideals that are difficult to fulfill, when did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
A: I wanted to be many things before I wanted to be a writer: a cheese-maker, a biologist, a documentary filmmaker. The wonderful thing about writing, though, is that you can pursue many professions at once through your characters.
I didn’t know I would become a writer while I was growing up in Peterborough, but I’m grateful to the teachers and mentors who helped me cultivate the skills to make it possible. Writing is more than an appreciation for words: it is about learning to approach the world around you with curiosity and compassion. It also requires a certain stubbornness hard-headedness—a trait that comes standard to many New Hampshire residents.
When I finally took my first creative writing course at Williams College, the craft turned into a calling.
Q: Did growing up in Peterborough impact your book in other ways?
A: There is definitely an emphasis on nature and the environment in “Of This New World.”
This stems, in part, from spending my formative years surrounded by mountains and rivers and forests. That said, I didn’t fully realize how connected I was to the natural world until I left it behind. I came to appreciate the crisp clean air of the Monadnock region much more after walking the smoggy streets of Hong Kong, for instance. And the pleasures of swimming in Cunningham Pond were utterly obvious after sweltering among sand dunes in the Sahara.
It has been a gift to travel and live all over the world — I’m so grateful for the experiences I’ve gained — but doing so has come with the cost of dearly missing home. The title of my story collection comes from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” and in some ways my nostalgia for Peterborough speaks to the sense of longing that pervades the book.
Q: Do you think the Monadnock region is a utopia?
A: The region certainly has some elements of utopia. We are lucky to have so much natural beauty around us, so many well-preserved historical structures. That said, utopia is often about perspective. A hippie commune, for instance, might be paradise for some people and a nightmare for others.
Having grown up in the Monadnock region, I can speak for many teenagers who get restless with small town living. When you’re sixteen, rural New Hampshire can feel claustrophobic and boring. In retrospect, however, I realize this setting was a gift. It gave me the space and time to grow into myself. A tight-knit community also affords the opportunity to develop long-lasting friendships. I wouldn’t want to have grown up anywhere else.
Q: Do you have any advice for emerging writers?
A: I feel as though I’m still emerging! What I can say, is that writers should follows their interests, no matter the many directions they take. “Of This New World” contains a lot of stylistic variation — there are stories written in the tradition of historical fiction and stories written in the mode of science fiction and stories that are rather absurdist — and I think this reflects my interest in continuing to explore, experiment, and grow as a writer. We often talk, in the literary world, about finding one’s “voice.” I’ve always been more interested discovering many different voices and giving them all a chance to speak. In that sense, the best advice I can give is to write in a way that brings you joy. Why else do it?
Q: What are you working on now?
A: The next step for me: finish my first novel. Tentatively titled “Eleutheria,” the novel expands upon the story “Shark Fishing” in my collection. It’s about a group of militant environmentalists seeking to build an ideal eco-community on an island in the Bahamas.
In other words: another stab at utopia.
Allegra Hyde will appear in New Hampshire for the following book discussions:
Nov. 19, 11 a.m., Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough
Nov. 19, 2 p.m., Toadstool Bookshop, Keene
Dec. 3, 1:30 p.m., The Monadnock Center for History and Culture, Peterborough