NIGEL BEALE

Nigel Beale for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who?

NIGEL BEALE Motivated by an insane, deep-seated love of books, Nigel Beale has, during the past several years, traveled the globe interviewing an impressive selection of award-winning authors and accomplished booksellers, publishers, collectors and book experts for a radio program he hosts called The Biblio File. Based in Ottawa, Canada, he is a freelance writer/broadcaster who specializes in literary journalism.

DS When did you start writing?

NB At age 2-3, in crayon, on the walls of my father's study. It got noticed.

DS Where do you write (at your desk/outside/in bed)?

NB I write in all sorts of places. In notebooks in longhand, at coffee shops, in my living room, at art galleries, in theatres and barber shops, walking dark alleys, in airports, on airplanes, in vitro, in situ...you name it.

Once I've got it scrawled on the page, I type it out, in Word, on the computer, and in the process edit it.

DS Why do you work where you do (at you desk because it is a quiet space/outside b/c it helps you think, in the park b/c you can smoke, etc)?

NB I work at my desk largely because it is surrounded by several bookshelves full of literary criticism.

DS What are you working on now?

NB Quite a range of things. I'm doing some preparatory reading for author interviews to be conducted during The Ottawa International Writers and Toronto Harbourfront Authors Festivals in October, a review of the Turner retrospective currently on at the Met in New York for Border Crossings magazine, and a variety of other deeply rewarding, very poorly paid projects. I also have a novel, mostly finished, that sits up in the attic, wailing occasionally for attention.

www.nigelbeale.com