Coming up

on DESK SPACE: Jonathan Ball

ALICE BURDICK

About some things on or near my desk:

The handprints are Hazel's, along with the paper poppy. Directly above her art is a painting by Drew Klassen of a tv showing snow. Below Hazel's handprints is an etching by Susan Fothergill. The baby swinging away is Arthur, 3 months old.

Alice Burdick for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who?

ALICE BURDICK I'm Alice Burdick, poet and mother, human working on stuff. Author of Flutter (Mansfield Press, 2008) and Simple Master (Pedlar Press, 2002), as well as a whole slew of chapbooks etc.

DS When did you start writing, publish your first book (or when are you publishing your next)?

AB I started writing at a very early age, little rhyming poems and then, later, a play about a ballerina. My Dad is a poet (I call him a secret poet) and translator, and used to speak to me in Old Norse. My first book, Voice of Interpreter, was published in 1991 through The Eternal Network (I was co-editor with Victor Coleman). My first perfectbound book was Simple Master, published in 2002. Flutter came out in 2008.

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

AB I write poems in little or large notebooks or sketchbooks wherever I may be sitting or lying down. Later they go into the old computer and then I edit em.

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

AB I like my desk, but I can only work at it really these days after my daughter Hazel is asleep or when she is at daycare. What I like about writing by hand into notebooks is that it can happen anywhere and I don't have to use any electricity to do so. We're in an old house and eventually my office will be in the attic, in a dormer window, but for now my station is set up in the dining room. You can see a hutch with a cake bell on top of it right behind the desk.

DS What are you working on now?

AB I'm working sporadically on a new bunch of poems. I don't usually write to make a cohesive manuscript, but I've got an idea in my head right now to write something tentatively titled 'Baby everything'. I am not afraid of the domestic or my children appearing in my writing.

Coming up

Next week on DESK SPACE: Alice Burdick

GUY MADDIN

Guy Maddin for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who?

GUY MADDIN Guy Maddin, largely sedentary filmmaker, fulminator and frequent napper. I should've included a shot of my couch!


DS When did you start becoming interested in film or make your first film?

GM I decided to make a film in 1982, when I was 26, but because of my dronelike sloth didn't get around to it till I was 30.

DS Where do you write or come up with ideas for your work (at your desk/outside/in bed)?

GM Many alleged ideas comes as I write -- I'm sure that's the same for most of your correspondents -- so right there at my desk. But I find strolls unusually productive; walking makes for melancholic, almost graveyard-spiraling, thoughts. I also take a lot of long dry-haired swims in the pool with my friend Steve Snyder. Over an hour the two of us will discuss how to massage our heartbreakingly strange family lives into our fictions. So, equal parts desktime, dogwalk and poolspell.

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

GM At the desk because I'm a slave to it. I can answer emails, the phone, do laundry and prepare meals from this central location. I resent the amount of time I spend in this chair, but I haven't mastered the modern teenage girl's ability to write while lying on my stomach in bed while sipping soda from a straw so I am doomed to this sedentary life and the fat ass it's given me.

DS What was the last film you watched?

GM The Old Dark House, just last night. Somehow I'd never seen this picture before even though it features many of the thesps with whom I'm obsessed: Karloff, Laughton,Thesiger, Massey and, now, Gloria Stuart!


DS What are you working on now?

GM I'm trying to write the script for my next feature, a thing called Keyhole, or the Naked Ghost, but the late fall weather is so fine I'm going crazy with euphorically sad yearnings. Can't do a thing! Weather of all sorts creates enervating euphorias in me, something I both cherish and resent.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Guy Maddin

BRIAN PALMU

Brian Palmu for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who (a one-liner or a bio)?

BRIAN PALMU Brian Palmu, gambler, poetry book reviewer.

DS When did you start writing, publish your first review/poem/book (or when are you publishing your next)?

BP My first prose fiction stylings began at 8 or 9, sports reporting humour; I composed and proffered a quaintly racy ballad sans refrain to a high school sweet heart (and other) throb; my second poetic entry rudely sprouted in 1979, and, undaunted, I’ve continued to write bad verse ever since. My first reviews were published by Canadian Notes & Queries earlier this year.

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

BP At the kitchen table, in bed, at the beach, in my head upon awakening.

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

BP My work entails cat-on-mouse concentration on the computer for six plus hours a day, so, when writing, I prefer another location so’s to become better acquainted with the rest of the house.

DS What are you working on now?

BP Two essays of political satire; three poetry book reviews for Canadian Notes & Queries; an arrangement of twenty or so of my own verses, voiced as a CD in collaboration with Sacha Fassaert’s jazz guitar; and organization of a reading in Gibsons, BC, Nov 14, for poets Peter Trower, Heather Haley, and Lyle Neff.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Brian Palmu

ALEXANDRA LEGGAT

Alexandra Leggat for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who (a one-liner or a bio)?

ALEXANDRA LEGGAT I'm a writer and a book addict. My newest collection of short stories is called Animal and I just finished reading a series of graphic novels called the Colour of Water, The Colour of Earth and the Colour of Heaven by the Korean manhwa author Kim Dong Hwa - I highly recommend it. It's beautiful, on every level, which is why I wanted to tell you all.

DS When did you start writing, publish your first book (or when are you publishing your next)?

AL I started writing when I was six. I remember the first poem I wrote and where I wrote it. It's all I did then, and now, I guess. My first book was published when I was in my late twenties - I think.

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

AL I'm writing freehand right now, so I have the luxury of writing anywhere, anytime. However, I get down to serious business, pull a story or book or article all together, in the sanctity of my loft, my office. No, its more than an office - my sanctuary.



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

AL I love working in my loft at my big white harvest table that doubles as a desk (a very heavy piece of furniture that my dad and I transported on top of my old '67 Monte Carlo from an auction way the hell out in Fort Erie to my home) because it's spacious and harmonious. I'm up in the sky here, amongst the tips of the trees, like being in a tree house. The room is bright and airy. I feel detached from everything - domesticity, humans, all the stuff that can weigh me down when I'm trying to escape into my work, my psyche. I can escape here, clattering away on my computer at my big old harvest table in my loft in the sky - truly escape. And I watch people without them knowing I'm watching, like a hawk, a falcon - you know, all those crazy raptors.



DS What are you working on now?

AL I'm writing my new book, which I started the second Animal came out. A nice surprise, to be able to embark on something new right away - and happily.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Alexandra Leggat

DESK SPACE WILL BE BACK SOON

LAURA FILICE

Laura Filice for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who (bio, one liner)?

LAURA FILICE Tainted painter



DS When did you start becoming interested in art, produce your first work (or when are you displaying work/commissioned to produce work)?

LF I found my passion at a young age, creating something out of nothing and later moved on to crayons, pencils and chalk. I was in middle school when I found my love… paint!



I started off like a typical kid with impressionist art, but discovered my true tainted nature in my teens. My bedroom walls were my canvass, much to my mother's dismay and my ever-changing mural of graffiti art grew with me. Later on, in the mid 90’s, I started painting on canvass and worked with a reputable local hippie artist that taught me everything there is to know about oils, realism and acid trips.



I developed a talent and ran with it for years - from sketching cartoon characters to painting intricate canvasses. I began selling artwork via word of mouth in 2000. Throughout the years I’ve displayed my work in many local exhibits, galleries and silent auctions.



DS Where do you work (at your desk/outside/in a studio)?

LF I have a home studio, which is well equipped, but my art often trails into other rooms in the house. In my space there’s a computer desk, which operates both PC and Mac platforms (currently, I am teaching myself how to use Illustrator and Photoshop). This space is where I research and brainstorm ideas, to later execute into works of art. My space is also my showroom; on the walls is a collection of my recent works.

In addition, I have been working in the area of project coordination and management for the last decade. I worked at a graphic art and web design boutique shop as the Project Manager over the last year but recently parted ways to find a new and stable endeavor…

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

LF I like to work from home because no matter what time of day, it is always conveniently located in the next room making it easy to create (and I’m lazy and like the fact that I don’t have to travel far).

DS What are you working on now?



LF Right now, I am working on 3 Munny’s (various sizes) of which will be displayed at an upcoming Lost Marbles show in September (Ottawa).

Coming up

Next week on DESK SPACE: Laura Filice

ALEX GOOD

Alex Good for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who (a one-liner or a bio)?

ALEX GOOD "Not to know me argues yourselves unknown."

DS When did you start writing?

AG I started regular reviewing in 1997. Created a website shortly thereafter. Back before these things were so popular. Nowadays, jeezis, any punk with attitude . . .

Oh well. I suppose they're all pigs of my sow.

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

AG I make notes while I read on whatever I happen to be using as a bookmark. I mostly read in bed, or (elsewhere) as near to the horizontal as I can get. Later I try and stitch things together at my desk. I have two desks. The first is upstairs and I mainly use it for doing business-related stuff. Try not to turn green with envy over my big effing pile of Canadian Tire money. I also have an office downstairs in what used to be a guest bedroom (hence the awesome wallpaper). This is where I have the computer set up, so I guess it's where I do most of my writing.



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

AG I live on a farm, kind of off the beaten track, so it's always quiet (unless a train is going by). Working at the computer is easiest because then I can just e-mail or upload whatever it is I'm doing when I'm finished.

DS What are you working on now?

AG More reviews. Helping out editorially at Canadian Notes and Queries. I've had requests from a few different publishers for a book (or books), but so far haven't had the time to get much done on them. Criticism has only ever been a hobby for me. But hopefully in the next year or so I'll be able to get a couple of things together.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Alex Good

IAN LETOURNEAU

Ian LeTourneau for DESK SPACE


DESK SPACE Who (a one-liner or a bio)?

IAN LETOURNEAU Ian LeTourneau is a transplanted Maritimer currently living in Athabasca, Alberta, which is about 150 kms north of Edmonton. His poems have been published in many magazines across Canada, including The Malahat Review, Arc, The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review and Event. In 2006 Gaspereau Press published a chapbook of poems, Defining Range, and in 2008 Thistledown Press published Terminal Moraine, a full-length collection.



DS When did you start writing, publish your first book (or when are you publishing your next)?

IL I started writing in junior high, like most writers I suppose, but only seriously in my mid-twenties or so. I think it helped to have good teachers who impressed on me the need to read, read and read, especially early stuff. I still find the poetry of the Renaissance and Elizabethan periods some of my favourite—Wyatt, Sidney, Marlowe, etc.


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

IL Mostly in the black Ikea chair (pictured in the corner of my office). Sometimes I’ll sit at the desk, but I get too distracted by the birds and other wildlife in the back yard. There’s a small river not too far behind our house, so there’s lots of activity. Deer are frequent visitors, but there have been moose hanging out for about a week at a time. Every once in a while a coyote will venture into the yard, and once I saw a grey wolf. And I didn’t see it, but a bear ate all our compost (a neighbor down the street saw the bear that same morning).




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

IL Because my office is the only private space I have in the house.




DS What are you working on now?

IL Finding time to write! But seriously I’m just starting to write new poems for my second collection, trying to fine-tune some short stories I’ve been working on forever, and occasionally writing on my blog, ianletourneau.ca.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Ian LeTourneau

STEVEN W. BEATTIE

DESK SPACE Who (a one-liner or a bio)?

STEVEN W. BEATTIE Steven W. Beattie, an intrepid Toronto-based writer, blogger, and literary critic, who spends his days (and some of his evenings) masquerading as the mild-mannered review editor for Quill & Quire magazine.



DS When did you start writing?

SWB Well, my first poem, called “Snow Is Like,” was written in senior kindergarten, but I think that would properly be classified as juvenilia. I’ve been writing literary criticism for the past six years or so. I started writing for the now-defunct Books in Canada, then branched out to places like Q&Q, the Edmonton Journal, the Vancouver Sun, and Canadian Notes and Queries.



In 2006 I also launched a narcissistic little online side-project – a litblog called That Shakespeherian Rag – largely because I like to hear myself talk, and the only thing I feel well-versed enough to talk about is books. The blog seems to have taken on a life of its own, though, and has gone through several incarnations (including its latest this past May, when I inadvertently napalmed the whole site while trying to update my blogging software). It’s basically a place for me to spout off about CanLit, the book biz, and literature in general. In its newest incarnation, I also changed the name to That Shakespearean Rag, since there seemed to be a fair bit of confusion around T.S. Eliot’s idiosyncratic spelling. Never let it be said that I’m not a populist at heart.

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

SWB Most of my writing is done at my desk; most of my reading is done off site.

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

SWB I write at my desk because no one gives me dirty looks about the bottle of Jim Beam that I keep by my elbow at all times, and I can deck myself out like Charles Bukowski in my boxers and a wife-beater undershirt.

That, and I have access to my library. Much of my writing process involves tearing through reference books, old novels I haven’t read in years, and other idiosyncratic stuff on my bookshelves. There’s a sense of security in knowing that all that stuff’s at hand, which makes it feel less like I’m working without a safety net.



If I were writing fiction, I could see maybe wanting to change locations, just to shake things up a bit. I’ve always been partial to writing in pubs, although the prose gets less articulate with each successive drink.

DS What are you working on now?

SWB A proof of Einstein’s theory of relativity. That, and some more criticism. There may be some fiction in my future, but that’s a bit further down the road. Right now I’m concentrating on what I do best: annoying people in the Canadian literary world.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Steven W. Beattie

DON SHARE

Here’s some of what’s actually on the desk: Paul Blackburn, Jack Spicer, Robin Blaser, Robert Lowell, Ezra Pound, Thomas Traherne, a Milton dictionary, W.S. Graham, Robert Burton, Delmore Schwartz, Samuel Johnson, Blake, Auden, Jules Supervielle, Janet Frame, Walter Benjamin’s “archives,” Lamb’s essays, tiny volumes of Thoreau & Marcus Aurelius, Michael Hofmann, Basil Bunting, compact OED, dictionary of similes (!).

RR spikes from Memphis, cheap reproduction of New York Public Library clock, bit of the wall from a Boston subway tunnel (Red Line – Harvard Square), bowl I made when I was 7, picture of place in Denmark where I lived as a kid, photo my dad took in NYC, cotton ball from Memphis, photo of famous ghostly poet. Wires.

Don Share for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who (a one-liner or a bio)?

DON SHARE Don Share is Senior Editor of Poetry magazine. He has been Poetry Editor of Harvard Review and Partisan Review, Editor of Literary Imagination, and Curator of Poetry at Harvard. His books include Squandermania (Salt Publishing), Union (Zoo Press), The Traumatophile (Scantily Clad Press), and Seneca in English (Penguin Classics); forthcoming are a critical edition of Basil Bunting¹s poems (Faber and Faber) and Bunting¹s Persia (Flood Editions). His translations of Miguel Hernández, collected in I Have Lots of Heart (Bloodaxe Books) were awarded the Times Literary Supplement Translation Prize, the Premio Valle Inclán Prize, and the PEN/New England Discovery Award.

DS When did you start writing?

DON SHARE My fifth grade teacher - to punish me for doodling rather than taking notes on his lecture about volcanoes - smacked me on the crown of the head with the stone in his bulky class ring, exclaiming "One day, Don is going to be a GREAT WRITER." The gauntlet... almost literally... was laid down. Pete Townshend had his nose for motivation; I had Mr. Kramer.

DS Where do you write?

DON SHARE I write - and read - mostly on public transportation, which is where I spend almost all of my quality time. My desk (which is actually an old table), as you can see, is specifically designed to facilitate reading... and inhibit writing.

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

DON SHARE I work on the train because... well, because I have to.

DESK SPACE What are you working on now?

DON SHARE I'm working on a long poem about Heath Ledger which is dedicated to Kent Johnson - neither of whom I have ever met. Since that's a complete disaster, I'm also working on the preface to a book coming soon from Flood Editions called Bunting's Persia.

Coming up

Friday on DESK SPACE: Don Share

DIRTY DONNY GILLIES

Native Canadian and now San Francisco staple 'Dirty' Donny Gillies' early fascination with Cartoons, comic books and model kits lead directly to Donny receding into his own self-created world of monsters and hot rods.

His unconventional approach to the art world along with a blast of natural talent has landed him lucrative jobs with Fender guitars, Vans apparel, Dunlop guitar picks and Bell motor cycle helmets, not to mention vinyl toy company Kid Robot and sticker apparel label Poster Pop. Donny's art has also been featured in countless magazines including Juxtapoz, International tattoo art and Metal hammer.

Donny has also done extensive work for San Francisco Metalheads Metallica as well as Sweden's The Hellacopters.

More of his work can be viewed here.


'Dirty' Donny Gillies for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE When did you start becoming interested in art or produce your first work of art?

DIRTY DONNY GILLIES I have been interested in art since I could hold a pencil.

I started getting jobs in the late 80's and early 90's doing flyer's for local puck bands and that lead me into sign painting and chalkboard's for bars and restaurants. In the mid 90's I started doing record covers for out of town bands and that's when the ball started rolling out of control.



DS Where do you work (at your desk/outside/in a studio)?

DDG I had a studio on Haight St. for about 3 years and when the lease ran out I decided to start working from home again. My wife Oriana and I have a nice space here in SF and I also have a big garage witch is handy for larger projects.

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

DDG I have a perfect size room, set up in 3 sections, light/drafting table for illustration, computer table and flat file for storage.
Again the garage serves it's purpose for pinstriping, woodwork and larger commissions, plus messing around with my '69 Satellite, my other love.



DS What are you working on now?

DDG Just finished a guitar pic set for Dunlop. I'm doing a one of a kind pinball machine for Metallica right now with my friends Wade Krause and Tanio Klyce.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Dirty Donny Gillies

RAY HSU

Ray Hsu for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who (a one-liner or a bio)?

RAY HSU I'm a postdoc in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. I received my PhD in English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My book of poems, Anthropy, got the Gerald Lampert award, and I have over thirty journals to thank for taking over a hundred poems of mine. I taught for a few years in a US prison, where I formed the Prison Writing Workshop with a group of incarcerated writers.



DS When did you start writing, publish your first book (or when are you publishing your next)?

RH I started writing Choose Your Own Adventures in second grade, but didn't start poetry until undergrad. I put out my first book in 2004 and my next is due spring 2010.



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

RH I usually write in cafes (can't get the accent on this keyboard).



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

RH I work in cafes because I live osmotically off the buzz of folks brainstorming around me.



DS What are you working on now?



RH I'm working at Gene's, a cafe where Kingsway meets Main, in Vancouver. The leaves are undulating in the sun.