Visiting novelist embraces slower life in rural Minnesota

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

While many people in Minnesota tend to vacation in the warmer states during the winter and into the springtime months, Alice Hatcher, a writer from Tucson, Ariz. decided to do just the opposite as an Artist in Residence through the New York Mills Cultural Center this past month.

Living in a city with over a half million people, Hatcher was looking forward to spending some time in the solitude of a quiet, small town, making NY Mills the perfect spot to working on development of her next novel.

“I looked forward to enjoying some quiet in a place that isn’t overwhelmed by traffic,” she said. “I left Tucson’s car traffic behind and discovered a train, but the sounds of the trains going by are generally more soothing than the sounds of drag racers that descend upon Tucson every night.

“While in residence, I conducted research for the novel I might write next,” she continued. “Mainly, I let myself think. I arrived in NY Mills feeling very burned-out after several grueling months spent revising my second novel, which is currently being shopped around to publishers by a literary agent. I came here thinking I should keep extremely busy to keep my mind off the anxiety of waiting to hear back from my agent.”

Though Hatcher did not accomplish the initial goal of drafting a complete outline of her next project, she realized that she did complete the first part of her goal which she had been neglecting.

“I didn’t finish an outline, but I did something much more important,” she said. “After three years of non-stop writing and editing, I allowed myself to loosen my grip on deadlines, perfectionism, and nearly impossible goals, and to let my mind wander. My time reflecting, reading, and sketching very provisional ideas has helped me reset and recover from the massive push to finish the last novel, and to ponder ideas related to my next project without all the usual anxieties that creep in when I’m settled into my usual routines at home. In NY Mills, which could’t be much more different than Tucson, I’ve gained some much-needed perspective on my life and some clarity about what kinds of future projects might be most meaningful to me.”

Hatcher’s writing origins came to her when she was about seven years old and discovered the book “Harriet the Spy” by Louise Fitzhugh at her local library. The protagonist in that story wanders around New York City writing down her observations in a notebook. This resonated with Hatcher’s shyness and inclination to be an observer.

“Around that time, one of my teachers encouraged my writing,” she said. “Seeing that it gave me a sense of confidence and pride, and set me on a long path that I’ve never regretted taking. I decided I wanted to become a novelist a few years later, when I read ‘The Great Gatsby’ and fell in love with Jay Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s amazing mind.”

Hatcher’s writings mostly take the form of short stories, poems, personal essays and her two novels, the first of which was published in 2018. She teaches part-time at the Writers Studio, a non-credit writing school based out of New York City with a branch in Tucson. She also works as a freelance grant writer.

“I love editing,” she said. “When I try to make whatever overwrought, overwritten piece of work I’ve thrown on the page sing. Many writers don’t enjoy revising, but I live for it. When I’m outlining or drafting, I’m battling the anxiety of facing the unknown, with no sense of whether something has legs. Once something is down on the page, I can at least comfort myself with the fact that I finished something and then lose myself in the details, much like a mechanic tinkering on an engine.”

“There’s something transcendent about losing myself in work,” she continued, “and at risk of using a cliche and outing myself as the real nerd I am, revisions are better than any drug I can name.”

Hatcher takes much of the inspiration that fuels her writing from themes of injustice in this world including war and racial violence. Being the daughter of an Army veteran in a self-described “very race conscious town” outside of Chicago, she is interested in understanding how people grieve and overcome trauma after violence.

“I try to write to give expression to my values and not with any material reward in mind,” she said. “Good writing comes from a place of passion, not a preoccupation with publishing. I’m trying to be less goal-oriented and more process-oriented, meaning that I’m trying to enjoy the act of creation and let go of expectations related to outcmes or possible accolades.

“Being in New York Mills gave me some much-needed time to reflect on the priorities I’ve just outlined,” she continued. “And, really, to resent and be human again after being fixated, for months, on pressing work deadlines and the demands of finishing my second novel.”