Healdsburg's literary laureate following secret passion to success

Healdsburg’s Literary Laureate, Gabriel A. Fraire, thinks everyone should be a writer.

“Not to become rich or famous, but because it makes you a better person,” he said. “If you write every day, you cannot help but examine yourself, and by examining yourself, you learn who you are. And that can’t help but make you a better person.”

Fraire should know. He has been writing for nearly half a century about his life and activities.

“I never thought of it as a career, it’s just what I do,” he said. “Some people garden or play the guitar. I write.”

Among his writings: five books, two plays, scripts, essays, articles, columns and, most recently, poetry. He earns his living as an editor and graphic designer for two community newspapers based in Greensboro, N.C.

Yet he didn’t start writing until he was in his 20s, a college junior on a year abroad program in London.

The first of six children in a Mexican-American family, Fraire grew up in East Chicago, not far from the steel mills where his father worked. His memories of family life are happy, yet complicated.

“I was the first born, the first grandchild. I was king for three years, and then…” he said, pausing to laugh. “Let’s just say I grew up with a lot of people in a very small house.”

A bright and sensitive child, Fraire says he found school boring. Still, he earned good grades. He was so responsible as a kid that he babysat for children older than himself.

“My parents instilled in me the importance of being hard-working, honest, responsible,” he said. “They set an example of how a person should live.”

His father valued education and self-reliance so highly that even while working in the steel mills, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. All six of his children graduated from college.

Fraire studied political science on a football scholarship to Earlham College, a small Quaker college in Richmond, Ind. And when he was accepted for the study abroad program, he was more than pleased.

One of his classes in London required extensive writing, he said.

“This professor just singled me out in class to praise my work. He told me I should write more. I should write every day. I took him at his word and started writing and have been writing ever since.”

Fraire met his wife, Karen, at college. He graduated, and they married in 1970, moving from Illinois to Florida, then Vermont, then New York, then Indiana and back to the Chicago area.

Like his father, Fraire worked in the steel mills. “The work is hell. Dirty. Hot. Dangerous. The only reason you’re there is because of the pay.”

For a while, he and Karen lived self-sufficiently on a farm, where he could write every day and she could garden. But the Midwest winters chased them out. Because they knew someone in Healdsburg, they settled there in 1975.

“When we lived in Illinois, we were considered a mixed-race couple. We caught a lot of grief for that,” Fraire said. “When we came to California, I was so happy to see mixed-race couples. It’s such a relief to just fit in and be part of the regular population.”

He and Karen raised their two daughters here. Ironically, he never made a point of sharing his writing life.

“I didn’t go public until 2013. There are people I’ve known for 30 years who didn’t know I was a writer,” Fraire said with a laugh. “I don’t talk about myself. I don’t write for an audience. I’m not trying to sell books, so my writing just never came up.”

But two years ago, he started sharing his work.

“I began realizing that if I lose either of my newspaper jobs, I might not be able to replace that income,” he said. “So I thought I’d start going public with my own work. I started doing readings.”

Fraire read from his novel “Mill Rats” and from his nonfiction book “Windsor: The Birth of a City” and his memoir, “Latino Jesse.” And people noticed.

The next thing he knew, he was being urged to apply for Healdsburg’s Literary Laureate position. He did, and despite stiff competition, got the position for 2014/2015.

As laureate, he helps promote the literary arts, especially in and around Healdsburg. Now his weekends often include public readings, or emceeing presentations by other writers and poets.

Fraire is a man who loves to read his work, and now, at 67, he happily discusses it.

“Writing’s a creative act,” he said. “I love that it’s all mine. I love that it’s cheap. You don’t have to spend money on anything but paper and a pencil. It has served as my friend and confident through all these years. It’s just awesome.”

Want more? gabrielfraire.com