p A LUM N I L I F E
NOT E WORT H Y
ALUMNUS Q&A:
WRITER DANIEL ALARCÓN ’95 NAMED 2015 OUTSTANDING ALUM
“I had such a good time at Springs,” says Alarcón. “I have such fond memories of the place. Every time I go back, the students are still the same. They still have the same curiosity that we had. The buildings can change, and I’m glad they updated the dorms and are now building new classrooms. But the core of it is the students and the faculty.”
D
aniel Alarcón ’95 loves storytelling. A native of Peru whose family emigrated from Lima to Birmingham when he was a toddler, the young Alarcón began making up stories before he could write them down. As a student at Indian Springs, his interest continued to grow, and during the past decade, his writings—both fiction and nonfiction; in English and in Spanish; for print and new media—have received critical acclaim in the United States and Latin America. We talked with Alarcón, who will receive the 2015 Outstanding Alum Award during Alumni Weekend, about his passion for writing and his time at Indian Springs. Q: When did you become interested in the art of storytelling? A: I have two older sisters. Even before I could write, when I was in kindergarten, I would dictate stories to my [middle] sister, Sylvia, and illustrate them. She would write them down, and I would draw little pictures. It has been a lifelong thing for me.
Daniel Alarcón’s short story collection War by Candlelight was a finalist for the 2005 PEN-Hemingway Award. His first novel, Lost City Radio, was named Best Novel of 2007 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Post. He is Executive Producer of Radio Ambulante, a Spanish-language narrative journalism podcast. In 2010, he was included in The New Yorker’s list of the best 20 Writers Under 40. Three years earlier, he was named to a similar list of Latin American novelists, the Bogotá39. His latest novel, At Night We Walk in Circles, was a finalist for the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award.
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INDIAN SPRINGS SCHOOL
Q: How did Indian Springs nurture that love? A: I had [English classes with] Mrs. Tuohy, Ms. Martin [now Ms. Sheppard], Mr. Moore, Mr. Meyer. Mr. Meyer taught me a course in Russian Literature, which was one of the most incredible experiences ever. Not even in college would I have had that good fortune. I was interested in a class on Russian literature after attending a great books course at St. John’s University in Annapolis the summer before my senior year. One of the books I enjoyed most was Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky, and I just wanted to read more. I talked to Mr. Meyer about it and convinced two other students to join us, and we spent a semester my senior year reading some of the big books, which was such an incredible resource. You talk about individualized education. It was one teacher for three students. Like a very high-end college seminar, but with 17-year-olds. That was one of the things about Springs. It was a place where there was enough flexibility where that was not out of the question.
Q: What other ISS experiences impacted your decision to become a writer and your approach to your work? A: I took a creative writing workshop with Mr. Paul McAdam, which was wonderful. I should also mention two other courses, though they’re not English courses: Dr. Cooper’s European History class and Dr. Thomas’s AP Jazz class. I mention Dr. Cooper because I loved history; I loved that he made it into a story with complex villains and complex heroes, a narrative full of questions. “These events unfolded in this particular way—why?” That, I loved. Dr. Thomas’s class because I just love music. I can’t sing at all, and I never joined glee club because I’m basically tone-deaf, but I love jazz, and I think that so much of my work has been influenced by listening to that music in his AP Jazz course. It was great. Q: You and a number of your classmates (author John Green ‘95, entrepreneur Shazi Visram ’95, artist Clayton Colvin ’95, landscape architect Michael Steiner ’95, swimsuit designer Amanda Key ’95, sculptor and industrial designer Jan Jander ’95, and others), have had great successes in your fields. Was there something special about the Class of ’95? A: I think we have the tendency to place that retrospectively on ourselves, but I wouldn’t say we were special. In fact, what makes