Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandra Dane.
Hi Alexandra, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When my third child moved on from home I debated my next chapter: another degree, go back to teaching, increase my hospice volunteer hours? Then I decided late one night to reach for the near impossible and definitely unproven: I applied to a writing workshop 3000 miles away, rented an apartment near the classes and dedicated six weeks to trying. My first published sentence and my first mentor is still with me 15 years later. He said write what you know and for me this also became “do what makes your heart sing.”
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Here is what I know: there is no glamour in writing, there is no money, there are a lot of hours spent alone, thinking. When I decided to pursue writing I had to prioritize myself and this process in faith. True writing and by extension to sit in the chair and rewrite until a piece is worthy of publication takes time and is a shift away from my former life as stay-at-home mother and wife, available socially for anyone. I feel like I still fight for the time and the quiet, the respect that this is a job. After many publications, awards and acknowledgements I have to get over that many people I considered my friends do not read my work. As many times a year possible I spend time with an inspiring group of writers in Seattle. I have a writing group that meets in person and virtual so I have a good critique base. I attend writing workshops and read voraciously. I spend 4-6 hours a day most days on my short pieces, submitting essays, often rewriting one sentence. There is manuscript in process. To fall for writing is to accept the fallout from my former life. How brilliant to meet new writers and mentors these last fifteen years that support me and astonished me every day. There are new chapters but we have to fight for them.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
‘Write what you know’ turned out to be about death and dying and by extension, the little big things in life that make a difference. Caregiver, hospice volunteer, patient: I was part of my mother’s care team for four years when I was twenty until she died at 51 years old. Many, many things were imprinted on me during this experience and I wrote them all down during her illness for sanity. This packet of notes lay untouched until 2011 when I decided to try to write about coping then and also my father’s illness and eventually my own cancer. I write about hope and the bright moments and the humanity in the midst of loss and how we survive. I have had many pieces published about this, winning the Annie Dillard Nonfiction award from the Bellingham Review in 2023 for my piece “The Language of Flowers” made me so happy, the award validating this message of finding hope and peace at the worst of times. I am not afraid to talk about the underbelly of caregiving, the human mess we make and how I found solace. When my own diagnosis happened the story was turned upside down: it put a lot of things in perspective to be on the other side of the bedsheets.
How do you think about luck?
Luck is finding a four-leaf clover in the field or an extra order of fries in the bag, unexpected sex in the afternoon or the best martini at the worst bar. I am not sure about luck per se otherwise: I am privileged that I could pursue writing and stay financially safe, that my mind is sound, that my hands can type fast. Tenacity got me through the worst of things, faith in myself and others. DNA deep in the marrow has determined so many things I am writing about. Finding the words that have deep meaning to others is hard work, not left to chance.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alexandradanewriter.com
- Instagram: @alexandrawriter
- Other: Blog posts at www.alexandradanewrites.com
