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.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Ray Hsu

MISS ME

DESK SPACE will be back next week...

PATRICK RAWLEY

Patrick Rawley for DESK SPACE

Hey, Kids! It's Patrick Rawley, star of stage, page, screen, radio and now the Internet! Tell us, when did you start writing? Well, I was a poor child, full of rage. It was then I decided that I would be a samurai. We couldn't afford a sword, what with my dad's golf addiction so I had to use words instead. Where is it I write? Usually at the coffee table on my smart little laptop. My "desk" is an abomination/ horizontal filing cabinet. What am I working on?
Two novellas, graphic novels without pictures, really, very hush-hush and experimental. I'm developing a screenplay with director Greg Machula. I 'write' stand-up routines that one has to sit down for.


This is not a picture of my desk but of my filthy assistants, Miss Tessmacher and Yelena.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Patrick Rawley

IAN WILLIAMS

Ian Williams for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who?

IAN WILLIAMS Ian Williams is a poet, fiction writer, and professor (the sequence rotates depending on the audience).

DS When did you start writing or publish your first book?

IW Can’t remember a time when I was illiterate, but in terms of writing writing, or what the big dogs call [finger quotes] creative writing [end finger quotes], that started in grade 6, then I turned pro [cough] years later with the scheduled publications of You Know Who You Are (poems, Wolsak and Wynn, 2010) and Not Anyone’s Anything (fiction, Freehand, 2011).

DS Where do you write?

IW I write on my hand; meta that, in my pocket on a tiny steno; meta that, on a laptop that has the battery lifespan of a goldfish and overheats; meta that, in morning sun and silence; meta that, between Ontario and Massachusetts.



DS Why do you work where you do?

IW I think most writers have a touch of the Emily Dickinson anxiety that revs up in public, the self-consciousness that is the flip side of sensitivity. For that reason I prefer to write at home, and I do go whole days holed up at home. I also prefer to write in the morning before the contamination of other voices set in. These are ideal weather conditions, but umbrellas and toques come out when life gets busy.

DS What are you working on now?

IW As usual, I’m swinging between poetry and fiction, editing-wise and writing-wise. These days I’m editing You Know Who You Are and Not Anyone’s Anything. Once those’re done I’ll turn to working on the macdaddy project, a novel. To say more than that now would jinx it.

Coming up

This week on DESK SPACE: Ian Williams