Alfaro, a writer, editor and publisher, was born in Toledo and lives in Columbus, Ohio.  He has an online magazine, Silenced Press, which is named after his publishing company.  His first book, real.m, is currently selling at many independent bookstores across the U.S.  After working with Alfaro for a few weeks, we finally got down to some questions and answers.

DB.  When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

A. When I was young my mother asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I had no answer at the moment but I thought about it and the first occupation that came to mind was writer.  I figured I could do this anywhere in the world and I imagined sitting on a beach, writing.  I never wrote much when I was young.  I wanted to write a great story but I never sat down and tried to think of one.  I knew that I wanted to be a writer, I just did not put towards the effort.  At that time, grade school maybe, I basically wrote in a journal.  It was one of those terrible journals in which you write about how you are writing a journal and how you keep saying that people would like to read about your life because it is interesting and you just write pages about nothing so that eventually you will have a book. When you look back over what you have written it is confusing, embarrassing and extremely flammable.  I started that journal the night I was arrested for “trespassing” even though I was only skateboarding.  No charges were filed, I just got a lecture from my parents which ended with me asking my parents what they wanted me to do and my mother telling me, “Why don’t you write about what you did.”

continued...

DB.  So, did you start to study writing in grade school then?

A. No.  In high school, I hated English class.  I was bored.  But near the end of my senior year, I got lucky.  My friend Garrett told me about a book his Grandma had given him that he’d read straight through and, at the time, it was the only book he had read straight through.  I kept asking him about the book but he would not give me any details and only said that I should read it.  The book was The Catcher In The Rye.  That book probably saved my life.  The first time I read it, like many young people, I completely identified with Holden Caulfield.  I have read the book many times since and found that this identification has wavered.  But what I like about the book, and art is general, is that it does not change, we do.  The Catcher In The Rye is still the same as when I read it in high school, but I am different. 

DB.  And how does this difference affect the reading?

A. Every time I go back, I find something new.  I have also re-read other books and found them nowhere near as interesting as the first time.  Books exist to be read at a certain time and place and hopefully you’ll catch the right book at the right time.  There is something out there for everyone and I write to make art that hopefully helps someone else, just as I have been helped.  I feel like I am adding to a collection.  I also think this is why many people read - because they do not find what they need in the people and places and time surrounding them but they can find it in a book.  I believe literature to be the most intimate art.  It takes the longest amount of time to comprehend.

DB. So you don’t think a reader absorbs all the subtleties on the first reading?

A.  No, I believe that a work of art is never fully comprehended which is what makes art eternal.

DB.  Tell me a bit about writing real.m.

A. The majority of the poems in real.m, were written in college and the few years after my graduation.  I felt very inspired at the time - the world seemed huge but easy to take over, in an imaginary sense. 

DB. Did you go to college to study English?

A. I basically went to college because most everyone else I knew was going and at the time I did not have a better plan.  In most of my classes I found the same intense boredom that I found in high school.  But I also found a few professors that changed my life.  I’ll never forget the professor in my intro to English composition class.  He was the first male English teacher I ever had oddly enough.  I found that all the males in class loved it and all the females hated it.  It felt like a role-reversal from the female English teachers I had in high school and at that point I realized I could enjoy literature.

DB.  So you did study English then?

A.   I went into college as a business major because I took a couple business courses in high school and I forgot about being a writer and figured I would do something with business.  I imagined running a T-shirt shop on the beach.  Then I found that studying business was completely asinine.  During finals week of my sophomore year, instead of studying for my business exams I read Siddhartha.  At that point, I realized I needed to change my major to English.  It was the best decision I made, otherwise I probably would have dropped out (which may not have been a bad decision either).  It was once I became an English major that I began to think of myself as a writer because this was the point that I actually started writing, or more precisely, I started writing pieces that I did not think were terrible.

DB.  So you came into English through the back door?

A. In a way you could say that.  My intro to creative writing class was one of those most amazing experiences of my life.  I never missed a class.  I wanted to be there.  I was never bored.  My professor was Ted Lyons who was the most amazing teacher I have ever had. 

DB.  You still remember his name?

A.  Sure.  I doubt I could ever forget.  I actually just saw Ted at a bar during a poetry reading at Larry’s (in Columbus, Ohio) and it was really good to see him.  His class is what inspired me to write poetry.  It was also around this time that I wrote my first book (yet to be published), so I felt that I was already on my way to becoming a writer.

DB.  Then what?

A.  I knew that I wanted to be published but not in the traditional sense.  I always imagined publishing myself.  I never had a different thought.  This recently became Silenced Press.

I created Silenced Press to give myself an outlet for my work.  But I also wanted to give others the same opportunity, which is why I made the press into an online journal.  I wanted to publish works that were amazing and that no one else was publishing.  My taste is obviously completely different for the established literary journals and reviews.  I was (and am) looking for poems that were not being published elsewhere but that were still great.

DB.  What do you hope to do with Silenced Press?

A.  Eventually, I want the press to grow and I would like to publish more amazing poetry that is currently sitting in someone’s basement or on someone’s computer or generating in someone’s mind.  I want poetry to be more in the mind of the public because I think poetry can help people like it has helped me. The mind needs poetry and art as much as any other basic necessity.  I only hope that I can help get the right poem to the person who needs it.

DB. So you always wanted to be self-published?  So many people want to be published by a big name press, why was this your first choice?

A.  I wanted to be completely independent which now seems to equal struggle and freedom simultaneously.  If my work is to become known then I want it done on my terms without being exploited.  I also want my work to be mine.  I go to bookstores now and I find most of the books to be eyesores.  The cover art of real.m is my reaction to what I have been seeing and it expresses what I want to see- words, the work.  I do not need a picture on a book unless I am reading a picture book.

DB.  Tell me a bit more about your book, real.m.

A.  It felt like I wrote the poems in real.m quickly, but I fine-tuned then relentlessly over time.  I wanted to write poems about art because I find it interesting and beautiful.  I need to create otherwise I am not sure what I would do.  I was never much into destruction except for what needed to be destroyed like say the current administration.  And I found a deep respect for art and artists that I wanted to express. 

These poems were my reaction to poetry/life/art. 

DB.  And what comes after real.m?

A.  At the moment I am living in Columbus, Ohio.  I work at a job that I would rather not work at but which I am soon quitting to travel to Costa Rica to be an artist-in-residence at The Julia and David White Artist Colony for poetry.  I eventually want to teach creative writing while continuing to publish.

Silenced Press is currently in the process of publishing another book of poetry and then another and then another and then maybe publishing novels.  Ultimately, I want Silenced Press to become known for poetry that is taking the form to a higher level. 

DB.  Well, good luck to you in all those things.  I hope you have a great time in Costa Rica.  Thanks for the interview.

A.  Thank you.

Last update : 12-07-2007 07:36

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