NICK THRAN

Nick Thran for DESK SPACE
A Poem

Desk Space

after Tomaz Salamun

I have a computer. My computer hurts my eyes.
I have a fan. When I turn on my fan there is wind.
I have a painting by my sister of the human heart.
My sister works two jobs because her landlord doesn’t charge
the same rent anymore.
I have a poem by Mark Strand. “Black Sea” is a wonderful poem!
I have a telephone. The captain has called me to say that I’ve won a free cruise.
I have a cup of coffee. My coffee is always finished too soon.
I have an orange chair. My orange chair is covered with clothes.
I have a dictionary. I look up the word pusillanimous.
I have a radio. My radio does not dream.
I have a letter from Darren. It’s nice to get letters from Darren!
I have a book by Philip Gourevitch.
If I take it with me to read in bed then I will not fall asleep.

REBECCA ROSENBLUM

The desk was my friend Melinda's until she got pregnant and needed the space for a crib (she didn't stop writing, just bought a smaller desk). The silver lamp belonged to my friend Penny until her cat took a violent disliking to it. The orange vase was my mother's until she took a disliking to it. Taped to the wall is the poem, "The Flying Woman" by Leon Rooke that he emailed me, and a bird painted on a leaf that my my brother sent me from India. The Talouse-Lautrec barroom mirror, I got for 50 cents at a church rummage sale when I was in grade school. Depending in what you believe, my workspace is filled with either good energy or nicer things than I would've bought for myself. Either way, I like it.

Rebecca Rosenblum for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who?

Rebecca Rosenblum Rebecca Rosenblum--short story writer, author of *Once*, poor chess player, reasonably good driver.

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

RR My first book comes out in two days, or is sort of already out, I guess, in select stores and in my living room. The first thing I ever published was the introduction to the "Clubs and Organizations" section of my grade 11 yearbook. It was a meditation on how weird homonyms are, how a club can be both a convivial gathering of like-minded people, and something you can hit someone with.

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

RR At my desk, mainly. Sometimes in coffee shops, libraries, or restaurants. In a pinch, at someone else's desk.

DS Why do you work where you do?

RR I'm not terribly fussed about where I work as long it has a chair and a stable flat surface for my laptop/notebook. I *hate* sitting on with my computer in my lap, despite the name. It hurts my neck, plus I'm such a fidget that the lap-resting seems like a really good way to wreck the most expensive thing I own. But even when I write longhand in a notebook, I like tables.

DS What are you working on now?

RR It looks to me like a collection of linked short stories. At least, I have written several short stories which do link. It may be too early to tell for sure, but in any event,I like it.

Coming up on Desk Space

This week on DESK SPACE

Monday: Rebecca Rosenblum

Wednesday: Nick Thran (a poem)

Friday: Andrew Hood

SUSAN GLICKMAN

I like a lot of space to spread out my work, especially when I'm editing stuff or going through student work, so my husband Toan turned a door into an extra big workspace for me. Outside the window is a hazelnut tree, currently full of contented squirrels. Sitting in front of my laptop is my dog, Toby, with his recent and very bad haircut. Toby has been a crucial contributor to my writing life for the past three years. While I work, he lies on a yoga mat you can’t see beside my desk, waiting for me to hit a snag so we can go out for a walk. How many walks he gets each day is directly related to how well my work is going.

Susan Glickman for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who?

SUSAN GLICKMAN Susan Glickman, poet, teacher, novelist, editor, and also mom, gardener, dog-wrangler, arthritic dancer.

DS When did you start writing?

SG When people ask me when I started writing I usually ask them when they stopped! Everyone makes up stories and songs and poems when they’re little, don’t they? I’ve never been able to put away childish things. I still do most of them: I make art, dance, mess around in the kitchen, and play outside.

DS When did you publish your first book?

SG The first book I didn’t put together with a three-hole punch and a red ribbon, Complicity, came out from Signal Editions of Véhicule Press in 1983. Luckily it’s out of print!

DS Where do you write?

SG I generally write at my desk, but I have written lots of other places—cafés and park benches and beaches and so on. I especially love writing on trains. I’m kind of envious of Zach Wells and Erin Moure for that reason!

DS Why you work where you do?

SG I have a home-office because I have always been the main caregiver for my kids. Now that they are teenagers and don’t need me as much, I still find it the cheapest and most convenient place to work. My other main jobs are often on the computer too—I teach online and do freelance editing. So I never have any wasted time; if I’m not working, I can do laundry or make soup or weed the garden or walk the dog. And if I feel compelled to write in the middle of the night, I just creep quietly upstairs with a cup of tea. So there’s a nice flow back and forth between my imaginative life and my domestic one. I always feel like a whole person.

DS What are you working on now?

SG I’m trying to finish my sixth collection of poems, Yarrow, and my third adult novel, Safe as Houses, and taking notes for a sequel to my brand-new-just-released-not-even-in-the- stores-yet children’s book,
Bernadette and the Lunch Bunch. And I have a short story percolating; it involves a dog, as do both the novel in progress and the photo I’ve sent you.