Randy Osborne gives in to the Narrative Urge

When I first heard about Narrative Urge it was still a foreign concept, this mystical literary thing that was happening around Atlanta. Mysterious letters were cropping up with clues, sections of stories and even money. Writers, and non-writers alike, were obsessed with finding out who was behind this movement and what it all meant. Eventually, the man who created it all came forward and claimed his work. And that man was Randy Osborne. Below, Osborne talks about his personal project, how there is still a bit of un-answeredness to it, and what keeps the Urge going.

Q. You were finally unmasked as the man behind Narrative Urge. What was it like when you were still hiding behind the curtain of anonymity as the fury to find out who was sending these letters circled around you?

A. My friend Kate Sweeney did the unmasking on WABE-FM’s City Café show, as we decided one day over breakfast at North Highland Bakery. I went public because I wanted to be able to add the Narrative Urge project to my portfolio, and start its next phase: Letter A Day. (A mundane title, right? But the acronym is LAD, and envelopes that went astray in the first leg of Narrative Urge – ones that nobody acknowledged picking up – were called Lost Boys.)

I think of the anonymity as simply necessary for part one of Narrative Urge, which concluded with the “Hydra” story, made up of literary fragments that the envelopes contained. It wouldn’t have worked, otherwise. The focus would have shifted away from the project and toward me … a personality thing, all that dull crap. So, the anonymity didn’t feel like hiding, and wasn’t particularly a thrill, in the sense of trickery or putting one over. Just mandatory.

Q. What prompted you to begin this mission and sit down to write the first letter?

A. For a while now, I’ve been collecting old handwritten diaries and letters. When all those documents are gone – when the paper has yellowed and crumbled and blown away – handwriting likely will disappear forever. The idea saddens me. I decided to start putting more of it back into the world.

Also, people of any age are delighted and, in a peculiar way, reassured to find a handwritten letter in the mailbox. Everybody is lonely. A big element in Narrative Urge, in telling stories and writing them, has to do with bringing whatever relief that might be had.

Q. Do you have a favorite moment so far from either a response from a letter or what you put into one of the packages?

A. The “$10 Art Mystery,” as many called the first stage of Narrative Urge, puzzled a lot of people, even after my identity and other details came out. Certain aspects of it have yet to be explained, because no one has bothered to ask. I don’t blame them. So the pleasure of that stage was purely in the execution, in the fact that I carried the project forth from concept to finish, in more or less the way I had imagined.

Letter A Day is much more accessible, by design. You want a letter? Tell me, and I’ll write to you. The requesters aren’t just old-timers who pine for the good old days. I get a lot from 30-somethings and quite a few from teenagers, too. My favorite moment is a renewable one. It happens again and again, when somebody says how much a letter meant to them.

Q. There is a huge free art movement happening around Atlanta, it is exciting to have literature be a part of it, and can you speak about the unity that this movement is creating from personal experience with Narrative Urge as well as your observations?

A. Soon, “free art” will be an outdated redundancy, a phrase that lingers from an era when people believed art should be anything other than free. The time of commodity art, controlled by the bankers, is just about done. We’re a gift-based society now. You can see this in the faces of people who do this kind of “work” (play), and in the regard we have for each other.

I tell people, if you want to pay for something, you can always pay for shoes and toothpaste. And in order to get the money for shoes and toothpaste, you have the privilege of creating beautiful things that will bring joy to your fellow humans. If you do this for real – if you put your heart on the line, and pour all that you can into your artistic work – you’ll be fine. But you can’t do less.

Q. How long do you plan on continuing Narrative Urge? And what keeps you going?

A. In a way, I’ve hardly done anything but “follow the Narrative Urge.” I write, teach fiction and creative nonfiction at Emory, and direct the Carapace true personal storytelling event (little to direct, really, at this point!). But you probably mean how long this project, specifically, will continue. Letter A Day promised a letter for each day of 2013, and beyond, if more than 365 requests came in. I have upwards of 400 now. So letters will keep going out until the requests end or I do. In the meantime, I’ll probably devise something new as an overlapping diversion. We’ll see.

I’m kept going by a handful of people who love me, and by the knowledge that what I do is part of a much larger enterprise that preceded and will outlast me. And by the ever-juicy prospect of what’s next.

To submit information to receive a letter, visit randyosborne.com.