Meet Allan Hunter

Q. Allan, you’re from England. Whereabouts? And why did you come to the US?

I lived in England until I was 30, mostly in Oxford, where I did my undergraduate and Doctoral degrees. I came to the US because at that time there were no university teaching jobs in England; in fact university departments were closing down. It felt logical to come to the city in the US that had more colleges and universities than the whole of Great Britain. Here I’ve found a much greater freedom to pursue teaching the way I want to than I could ever have found in the UK. I miss England, of course, but I don’t miss the life I’d have been forced to endure had I stayed.

Q. You’re a writer and you also work with people who are writing their memoirs. Can you tell us a bit about what you do and why? 

I’ve worked with people on memoir writing, and as a creativity coach, for more than thirty years. Very often my clients feel they have something that needs to be expressed, but they aren’t sure what it is and so they need help identifying that. I have specific techniques for making this easier. 

As we write our life stories and explore what really happened, what we do is move ourselves towards a greater sense of understanding and peace with the past. There's almost always a story behind the story, and that's the one that matters. 

My book, ‘Write Your Memoir: the Soul Work of Telling Your Story,’ is the result of many years of practical coaching of memoirists and other writers. I’ve seen how writing can help us heal, and get free of the past. Helping people with that feels like worthy work.

Q: How is memoir different from autobiography? 

An autobiography is the story of an entire life. A memoir is a section taken from a life, one that the writer feels to be important.  The two years she spent in Borneo were, to one woman, the turning point of her life - the place at which she became who she was. Understanding what happened and how it happened can be immensely liberating.

Q: What types of writing exercises or prompts do you find most effective in helping individuals process their emotions and experiences?

The best exercises are, I find, the simplest. For example, often I'll ask someone to visualize a scenario, and then I lead them through it. Their Unconscious defenses tend to say "Oh, this isn't important" and that's exactly when we can get to the core of things. 

Q: Do you think writing can serve young adults or even children as well?

Even though I work mostly with adults now, young adults and children surely can benefit from writing. Children love stories and telling stories can often be a way of exploring their sense of who they see themselves to be. They 'try out' different versions of themselves in story-telling. Even better is that by including characters who might be unpleasant they are able to ask why someone might be nasty, dangerous or cruel. Story telling grows compassion, inevitably, for those who are 'not us'.

Q: How did you approach teaching writing at Curry College? What did you hope students would take away? 

Teaching at college made me aware of one over-riding thing: students were routinely asked to write papers about a subject, but they were almost never asked to write about their own situation, their own feelings - even though the four years typically spent at college can be emotionally tumultuous. 

In my classes and workshops students of all ages were able to claim their own voices, and with that their own power. As I used to say to them, 'To have a great degree from a great college is worthless if you don't know who you are.'

Q: Can you share an example of how writing has enabled a client to achieve a significant breakthrough or transformation?

I'll give two obvious examples. The first is when I worked with a man in a maximum security prison, from which he was expected never to emerge. In the months we worked together I found him saying things like, "I can't believe I did that" and "I've never admitted this to anyone." We were working on his life story, for sure, but in that process he was reviewing his whole life and value system. What happened? He basically rehabilitated himself. He's out now, and has been law-abiding and productive for twenty years.

The second example is my own father, who asked me to help him with his memoir of surviving in a German prison camp during WW2. This was a man who never mentioned any of his war years to anyone. It took many meetings to review his progress, but by the end he had finished his memoir and his PTSD was no longer a problem.  Bear in mind that this was a man who would wake in the middle of the night shouting "Don't shoot!" and sometimes, fast asleep and in the grip of an horrific dream, he'd try to fight with and strangle my mother. Writing his memoir brought him to a place of greater peace, and he knew it. Writing for him was healing.

Q: Any tips on how to get started writing, for those of us who would like to try?

The best way to get started is to make a space in your life. 15 minutes is enough, to write, preferably on a daily basis. Then after 15 minutes, stop. Even if you haven't written anything.  

Gradually you'll find just spending that time being ready to write will loosen up your writing self and you'll start to jot a few things down. The unconscious defenses begin to drop away and we find we do have plenty to say. 

In short, it's a bit like going to the gym. You start with a gentle workout, and then rest. Then you come back. It becomes a habit. It's the same thing with writing. Pretty soon it will grab you and you'll be eager to get to work each day. Trust me. I know this terrain.

Q: Ok, on to what you do for fun. You're a restorer of vintage motorcycles. Where do you get parts?

The first thing I’d say is that any hobby can become a meditation - if you allow it to be. Working patiently at something, removing oneself from the rest of the world, can be immensely centering also. 

As for finding parts, the key to successful restoration has always been personal connections, friendships and community. You get to know other enthusiasts over time. You might go to a meet or simply hear about a friend of a friend's neighbor. Larz Anderson Park Museum in Brookline has a good meet on September 30th, for example. As you build your network you find people you like, people you can trust, and those who are willing to help - a real community in fact.

Some people follow this hobby just to make a quick buck. I've been riding and fixing bikes since I was 14 and it's never been about the money for me. Old motorcycles can be taken apart and fixed using mostly hand tools - you only need specialized computer equipment for the latest models - and so it's a hobby that's the opposite of our disposable, throw-away culture. 

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If you’re intrigued and would like to learn more about Allan’s work as a writer and coach, you can find him here: allanhunter.net.   Best, Nicole