On Feb. 26, in the Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, UB’s English department hosted Allegra Hyde, an author and a creative writing professor at Smith College for this year’s Exhibit X Fiction Series.
Hyde’s first published story collection, “Of this New World,” won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award, while her debut novel, “Eleutheria,” was named a Best Book of The Year by The New Yorker in 2022. Behind all the awards and accolades, Hyde is an author who experiments with absurd imagery while facing emotional and ecological themes.
The event showcased Hyde’s newest short story collection, “The Last Catastrophe,” with a Q&A session followed by a reading from the collection. “Short fiction is a place where I can process things of the world in my own way,” says Hyde, referring to the manifestation of climate change through her stories. A central tenet of what makes Hyde unique is that she uses fiction as a way to interpret experiences from real life into imagery based on news articles and a hyperbole of emotions that allows students to have that perspective.
Christina Milletti, Associate Professor in the English Department and the Interim Director of the Humanities Institute, co-founded the Exhibit X Series back in 2003, with the archive running since 2013. Milletti and Dimitri Anastasopoulos, Associate English professor and Director of Creative Writing, are the current curators of the exhibit.
“It’s great for students to hear a variety of different perspectives,” said Anastasopoulos when asked on the importance of having visiting authors. They’ve brought in authors who’ve taken 8 years to write a book, authors who’ve edited 400 books, authors who only write a sentence a day, all just to showcase that not just the subject matter, but the process of writing can come in a large variety. Anastasopoulos said it’s for the students to know that “they fit in with the writing world,” adding on that,“the way [the authors] go about writing makes it possible for them to write too.”
Alex Zelkas, a senior English major and media study minor, has attended the last 5 instances of the series. “[The authors] passions are similar, but their approaches are wildly different.” Zelkas stated when asked what they had learned. They talked about one author, Ed Park, who spoke in 2024. He had to listen to classical music on vinyl in order to write. “That was just fascinating to me,” Zalkas said, “other writers say you can’t have music at all, music ruins the creativity.” Furthering the point that the process is variable. “I think what's most valuable about these [authors], is just seeing their passion and seeing how much these people care about what they’re doing,” Zelkas closed off with.
With the students that are engaged with the process, the authors displaying their variety, and curators who care to bring valuable voices to UB, the Exhibit X Fiction Series is truly a hidden gem that most students don’t, but should, know about.
The arts desk can be reached at arts@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons | Warner Bros. Records
