Oscar Adame Galeano, LISP 2025 Short Story Finalist, 'The Hanging Man'

Could you please tell us about yourself and your daily routine?

I am Oscar Adame Galeano, a Mexican writer best known for my work as a music journalist, currently residing in Ireland.

I came here in search of that naive innocence that USians portrayed in their teen movies and TV shows, since Mexican life and mentality are quite different. We worship death, we're constantly confronted with harsh realities, and we see innocence as something to be eradicated, something for the weak and submissive.

In Europe, innocence is undoubtedly more prized, though I think it's a bit late for me now. I can only view it with irony, and a touch of envy, though I'm also worried because I feel that, due to their naiveté, the new Western generations have no way of competing with my Latin American one.

When and how did you start writing?

I started writing professionally at 17, on a music blog my mother gave me called Poolp. It was very successful at the time, and a few months later I was invited to host a radio show on Coca-Cola FM. Three years after that, I became editor-in-chief of WARP, probably the most important music magazine in Mexico at the time. I was also a contributor and announcer for W Radio, the most important station in Latin America, and I was interviewed several times on CNN as a specialist in Hispanic music.

I came to Ireland intending to become a better writer, both for my journalistic work and to make the leap into fiction. I succeeded for a few months, working at Romero Games. Lately, I've also managed to write for Dazed and Wired, and I previously wrote for Rolling Stone. I've only been here a year.

Now I want to focus on creating richer narratives related to music, always under the idea that it is not mere entertainment, but the voice through which societies express their souls, and narratives that show a more faithful reflection of my Mexico.

How frequently do you write? Do you have a writing routine? And what inspires you to write?

I write all the time. My inspiration comes from life's contrasts: from the beauty in people and sunny days, but also from my scars and violent traumas. From the urgency of human desire and, to balance it, from the tenderness of my beautiful cats: Akira, Chimuela, Sofia, Sigur, Pepita, and Fidel, the Communist Cat

How does it feel to have your work recognized, whether through being a finalist in a competition or having it published?

It feels amazing, like receiving a sweet treat. It sticks to your palate and makes you salivate for a while, although afterwards it can also cause a slight, annoying tingling sensation at the back of your head.

What's the most rewarding and challenging aspect of writing a story or poetry?

Seeing that you can give birth to something you imagined in your head and studying what that which you are giving birth to reveals about yourself.

How did you come up with the idea for your LISP-selected story? Is there a story behind your story? And how long have you been working on it?

Of course. It's not a work of fiction, per se. When I was a kid, leaving high school, I saw a corpse hanging from a lamppost a block from my house. Its intestines were hanging out, scattered on the pavement, and it was accompanied by a message we call a narco-banner.

He was placed there by an old cartel formed by former Mexican and American military personnel called Los Zetas, who at that time were taking over the territory of the municipality where he lived.

It is a very common experience in Mexico and an image that all people of my generation, and those who followed, know very well.

Please share a few tips on writing short stories.

Do it from the intestines.

Finally, would you recommend that the writers consider submitting to LISP?

Of course .