Continuing my blog series profiling authors I know personally, this time I’m profiling Algernon D’Ammassa. (Previously I profiled Daniel Paliwoda, Jen Pitts, and Liza Woodruff.) Algernon is a journalist, currently serving as the managing editor of the Las Cruces Bulletin in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He’s been in this role since December 2023. Previously, he was editor of the Deming Headlight, reporter and columnist with the Las Cruces-Sun News, and reporter and columnist with the Deming Headlight.
Algernon hasn’t always made a living as a journalist, though. He’s also been an actor, a professor of theater arts at several institutions, a K-12 performing arts teacher, a co-founder of an acting studio, a Zen meditation instructor, and the abbott of a Zen center. He’s also a former board member of the New Mexico Humanities Council.
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Journalist and editor Algernon D’Ammassa (Personal collection/Algernon D’Ammassa) |
I was fortunate to meet Algernon when we went to middle school together at The Gordon School in East Providence, RI. My first year of existence there in the sixth grade passed pleasantly enough, but in seventh grade, for some reason I became the chosen object of the class bully. Algernon, though, stayed a true friend. He performed countless acts of loyalty over the next two years, including performing a soft-shoe duet with me to a rendition of “Me and My Shadow” sung by the class chorus when our music teacher latched on to the idea that I should perform a dance solo once she found out I took dance classes—Algernon came to my rescue. He also phoned me daily with our homework assignments when I was out of school for a surgical procedure. There are many other examples, but you get the idea. Algernon was a gem.
We went our separate ways in high school and completely lost touch for many years, until we reconnected via Facebook. These days we mostly keep in touch through old-fashioned letter writing, of which Algernon is a proponent, or an occasional Facebook message. I’m so glad to be back in touch with him, and I’m glad to introduce you to his life of writing.If you’d like to connect with Algernon, you can find him on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X. You can also reach him through the Las Cruces Bulletin. Following is an interview I conducted with Algernon, which we edited collaboratively.
When did you first know you might become a writer?
I think of my father as the writer in the family, although both my parents wrote. My mother did not write much for publication, but my father turned out book reviews, articles, short stories, and novels. I grew up thinking of writing as an ordinary activity. I wrote letters to the editor, guest opinion pieces, fanzine articles, and plays without any serious ambition most of my life. I was just having fun with it. For decades I thought of myself as an actor and sometimes still do.
What or who motivates you to write?
Most of my published writing is for the weekly newspaper I edit. Plays come to me initially in patches of dialogue, a theatrical image I want to help convey, some way of using live theatre to portray an idea alongside its negation, a theatrical action, or an intriguing relationship.
I try to approach opinion journalism from a nonpartisan angle, sometimes to persuade but often to portray how an ordinary person reasons through problems or propositions that news reporting presents to us. At other times, I feel more reactive, so I use satire instead.
What is your favorite part of your writing process and what do you most like about it?
A few years ago, I reformed my handwriting and got into fountain pens. The tactile pleasure of writing by hand has been a welcome surprise. As a result, I write more personal letters than ever and write notes to myself in journals. My eye, hand, and the flow of the ink work together in a way that pleases me as words and sentences take shape. Sometimes I draft my columns by hand with good results.
Usually, however, I must type, and somehow the process of selecting words and diction are different as I type and watch the words appear on screen.
Either way, I hear a voice and try to direct it to be conversational with the reader.
Where do you do most of your writing and why is that your chosen place?
In my office, people interrupt me constantly, so I do my newspaper writing in cafés or the tiny cabin I rent in town. If working by hand, I have a slanted tabletop writing desk for journaling and writing letters. I have a lovely reading room at my home with a comfortable chair, but I don’t do much writing there. Too much relaxation doesn’t help. I’m kind of a lazy writer.
Whose books do you most like to read and why?
There are certain books or writers who feel like companions, and I enjoy spending time with them. S. J. Perelman makes me laugh and often sends me to the dictionary. Jacques Barzun is such a lovely writer and interesting thinker; I enjoy spending time with any of his books. Plutarch’s biographies are not always good history, but they are good storytelling about the formation of character and values. Joan Didion’s essays. The English playwright Edward Bond is eclectic and fascinating, but it’s his essays I go to repeatedly. Montaigne. Barbara Ehrenreich. Terry Pratchett. There are lots: Books and writers have served as a rich community.
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
It’s been said a million times because it holds true: Write. Write every day. Even if most of it is garbage in a throwaway notebook, just exercise moving words through yourself onto a surface and then read that output to see what is effective, what expresses you, what might be useful. If it’s for publication, read a draft out loud. Reading to somebody could also be informative.
Anything else you'd like to share?
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and Simple and Direct by Jacques Barzun are books I often snatch up at used bookstores and give to people. Feel free to look for them. They might be helpful.