SINA QUEYRAS

Sina Queyras for DESK SPACE

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

SINA QUERYAS Professional strumpet, poet, educator, one who opines.



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

SQ I wrote for a long, long, long time, in many various locations before publishing my first book, Slip, in 2001.

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

SQ I write wherever I can: train, subway, kitchen table, bed, libraries, anywhere but cafes or restaurants which stopped being interesting places to work many years ago.

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)?



SQ Winter in Canada has made working in bed more appealing but now I have a sofa/bed in my office so I'm all set. My commute from Brooklyn to Rutgers was very productive though, and led to Expressway, my latest book of poetry. Commuting is good if you're not driving, but times need to be long enough to settle into work. If the trip is too short (as my current commute to Concordia is) or too fragmented (as my commute in Calgary was last year), it just becomes irritating. Driving commutes are obviously not ideal for the environment, but good places to think if not write.



I love libraries of all kinds. The New York Public Library was a favorite place to work, as was the library at Haverford, Bobst Library at NYU is great. The Bibliothèque here in Montreal is fabulous, but given the weather I am often in my office at home.

DS What are you working on now?

SQ Putting together a volume of essays and blog posts from Lemon Hound. It's called Unleashed, and will appear in September thanks to BookThug.