Alexandra Franklin, a junior majoring in English, can hardly remember a time when writing was not a part of her life, but now she has transformed writing from hobby to compulsion to a career path that’s won several prestigious awards and internships.
As a high school student, Franklin won several awards from the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, including their American Voices award and the Gold Portfolio award, the highest honor offered by the Alliance, for her portfolio of essays, poetry and short fiction.
Franklin has also been awarded several prestigious internships in her field. She served as editor of Scholastic’s “Best Teen Writing Anthology,” in which she has also been published, and worked as an intern at New York publishing houses Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency and Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents during summer 2012.
Winning these awards has not been the end of Franklin’s journey as a writer and aspiring publisher but rather the beginning, affording Franklin opportunity to forge relationships which she says are invaluable in her field. They have provided her with further opportunities, such as having her essay, “Revelations of a Feminist,” published in the New York Times . Franklin’s awards have also furthered her desire to seek a career in a literary field.
“[The awards] provide further validation that this is not a phase or a whim. It’s a legitimate path that I happen to have a knack for, and I really enjoy. I don’t think I’ll ever make any money doing it, really, but it’s nice to know that my work is reaching people and that they’re compelled by it,” Franklin said. “That’s all I ever wanted.”
When it comes to writing, inspiration can appear everywhere for Franklin, who is always prepared with a notebook and pen. Once inspiration has struck and Franklin works out her ideas, she typically hand writes or types her ideas out on her typewriter before refining her ideas as she transfers them to her laptop.
In her writing, Franklin is interested in exploring failed interactions between characters more than plot-driven narratives.
“I think there’s more significance in negative space, in what people don’t say than in what they express openly. Silence and avoidance are very rich parts of conversation – there’s a subtlety and sad beauty to conversations that never quite get around to resolving themselves. When people don’t say what they obviously want to say, they end up expressing quite a lot. I think that’s a very challenging and emotionally charged thing to write about.”
Franklin, who currently serves as an intern for the UA English department’s Slash Pine Press, hopes to pursue a career in publishing but says this path is not so much a choice but an inevitable path in pursuing her love of literature.
“I’ve never been able to imagine spending my life on anything but books. It wasn’t really a decision I had to make,” she said. “It’s not as if I were being pulled in several different directions. I’ve always been fairly obsessed with literature, and nothing else has been able to capture my attention in the same way.”
Though for many students the prospect of finding a career is daunting, Franklin is excited about facing the challenges of her dream career and internships.
“I was so excited to go to work every day this summer that I was constantly waking up hours too early. It was hard work, but it’s something I love so much that even the most tedious intern responsibilities felt like a privilege,” Franklin said. “I honestly feel so lucky. I don’t know anyone who is as excited about their jobs as I am, and I can’t imagine I’ll ever be bored with it.”
Franklin’s simple yet powerful advice to aspiring writers is to follow what moves and inspires them.
“[Writing] has to be something that you want to do for yourself and not for anyone else,” she said. “So write about what you love.”
