Interview with Alaina Hammond​

Meet NUNUM's contributor: Alaina Hammond

11/28/2025

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Alaina Hammond

What was the first book you remember picking up and reading by yourself?
The Little Engine That Could.

What writer(s) or which book(s) influenced your decision to become a writer?

To be a writer in general, none. Or rather, too many to name. To be a playwright specifically, not Shakespeare but Sartre. I read No Exit at 14, and I felt deep envy.

I wanted that power. I coveted it. While I've written some plays I'm proud of--and gotten over fifty original plays produced off-off Broadway--I've never written a character I considered as interesting as Inez. That's OK; I played her onstage! (also off-off Broadway).

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers?

How To Read Literature Like A Professor, by Thomas C. Foster. Yes, it's about reading, not writing. But it's still a useful tool for writers to consider.

Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style?

I flatter myself that at my best I channel my boyfriend Sartre. Also, I flatter myself that he's my boyfriend. My apologies to my husband David, with whom I'm very much in love. He's been putting up with my neurotic artist schtick for more than 16 years; he deserves a Nobel Prize.

Why write flash fiction?

I'm naturally pedantic and long-winded. The restraint of flash fiction is a good way to counteract my worst tendencies. Limitations, as a writer, are ironically liberating. It's why I prefer to write rhyming poetry.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

The numbers are not on your side, and that's no reflection of your talent. You like your story and you think you've sent it to enough places? Trust me, you haven't. Send it to ten more. Now, ten more than that. Eventually someone will accept you, but in the meantime: Submit. Submit. Submit.

Also, read the journal and see what they've published, so you know whether you're in the right genre. If you're not, submit anyway. But seriously: Submit.

What's the longest thing you've ever written?

My play Goth Principal is just over 1500 pages. I cannot emphasize enough that it's not supposed to be performed in one sitting. I don't hate my actors or my audience.

What's the greatest cartoon of all time?

I'm gonna go with Futurama.

What's the greatest sci-fi series of all time?

Definitely Futurama.

How much Futurama did you watch while you were pregnant with your son?

All of it. Every episode. I hope he remembers the theme song from his prenatal days.

Alaina Hammond is a poet, playwright, fiction writer, and visual artist. Her poems, plays, short stories, philosophical essays, creative nonfiction, paintings, drawings and photographs have been published both online and in print. @alainaheidelberger on Instagram.