Has your preferred place to write changed over the years? From NPD Furniture: Over the past 16 years, New Pacific Direct has evolved from a solid wood case goods manufacturer to a purveor of lifestyle home furnishings. We are passionately committed to offering reasonably priced home furnishings that are consistently of high quality and fashionably designed. In need of a more fashionable desk for my work in our new Oak Park apartment, I discovered a unit at a nearby Scandinavian Design store that I still ownor at least part of it. After all, while going to church with my family as a youth I never heard the reverend say, Lazarus was raised from the dead by the adroit hands of Jesus, and none of the guys I played basketball with claimed to have an adroit handle while dribbling the rock. Sandra Cisneros often tells young writers to write until it hurts, and in doing so she means write for depth instead of the amount of time spent putting words on the page. You may also cancel an order any time prior to the product being shipped. They published a volume of Carvers collected stories that included his original versions with many of the so-called writing excesses that Lish had edited out. Accepting returns is at the sole discretion of Abbysons judgment of the state of the items. I soon found that the main role of my vintage desk would be to collect dust in the West Side apartment in which I lived, an area of the city that I wrote about as Bluesville. But a place named Bluesville is not where youd expect to find many people with desks in their apartments, and that made me an oddball in that community. But if a desk can be conceived of as a place where writing is performed instead of a symbolic piece of furniture, my most memorable writing desk was a seat on the L. What about other writing desks that have been important to your work? Twitter: @ReggieScottYou1. Unlike most writers I see in coffee shops, I never order lattes or specialty drinks. Join Reggie Scott Young on Wednesdays 6/29, 7/6, 7/13, 7/20, 8/3, and 8/10; from 6:30-8:30pmCST, for his poetry workshop: City Songs. Other writers can offer similar stories. https://rycitysongs.wordpress.com 14 Cool VHS Covers for Modern Movies and TV Shows, This Realistic Water Painting Took More Than 2 Years to Complete, How Insulated Glass Changed Architecture as We Know It, Betty Whites Hilariously Unscripted Great Herring War Improv on Golden Girls, Artist Gets Revenge on a Cheapskate Who Wasted Their Time, Sculptural Guns Made from Typewriters Because Words are Mightier, What Each Character Would Look Like in a Cartoon Version of The Office, Guy Turns Stainless Steel Bolt Into Amazing Miniature Hunting Knife, This Short Clip Shows Theres Beauty and Creativity Everywhere. While in grad school, several of the fiction writers in our program were into Raymond Carver and under the influence of Gordon Lishs minimalist philosophy. No Assembly Required, If your order hasnt shipped and youve had a change of heart, you may cancel and receive a full refund of your purchase by contacting us at. I would argue that if you want to write for people who live in trailer parks, along the Rio Grande border, in Texass Hill Country, its Panhandle, or a community that you think of as Bluesville, respect your calling. Complete your dcor with the coordinating Reggie floor lamp. In her poetic dedication to the unveiling of Chicagos Picasso statue years ago, Gwendolyn Brooks exclaimed, Art hurts. , in chapter one I would advise any poet without a well-paying job or trust fund to stick to the drip, avoid espresso concoctions that often disappear while writing a single stanza or paragraph, and to wear headphones or earbuds. Receive new posts in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter at, Wanting to be like Hughes, I convinced my mother to help me purchase a desk of my own from an estate sale in Chicagos Rogers Park, a neighborhood in which very few residents looked like me at that time in the citys history. I wrote my dissertation, a multi-genre novel titled Crimes in Bluesville, on that desk using my first computer, a Kaypro that weighed as much as a crate of bricks. Due to Twains early influence, I loved to write long flowing sentences, sentences as long as the Mississippior, at least as long as an L train ride from Chicagos West Side to Rogers Park. When I sat at that desk, I often felt like Houdini underwater in a straitjacket. Despite the numerous imperfections in Twains works due to the excesses in his writing, I felt myself drawn to him, as did Ralph Ellison and numerous other writers from backgrounds similar to my own. Besides, the coffee wasnt bad. The desk, a sixty-four-inch Danish modern with no drawers under its laminated solid wood top, fit perfectly along the wall of the enclosed front porch that I used for my study in an apartment located blocks away from the townships historic Frank Lloyd Wright houses and the home where Ernest Hemingway lived during his short time in that Chicago suburb. In it she argued that Twain was influenced by the speech of enslaved and free Black people he knew during his youth in Missouri. Abbyson may request descriptions and images to determine the state of the items prior to accepting returns. The unit also turned my dining room into a multifunctional living and. With a black metal finish, the base forms a low triangle shape leading to a thin stem. In fairness to Anania, he directed my dissertation and encouraged my interest in writers such as Henry Dumas and Robert Hayden. Abbyson reserves the right to refuse any returns. I soon married and to avoid embarrassing my wife, I tried to distance myself from all expressions of ghetto-postmodernism. I grew up a Langston Hughes fan and remained one when I attended the University of Illinois at Chicago in the early eighties. I remember my poetry professor in grad school, Michael Anania, who now lives in Austin, used that word from time to time. In the hands of a less adroit writer, a word of that nature stands out as a flagrant example of overuse. Do you have any habits or routines that you follow before writing? In this 6-week workshop,we will write poems that celebrate and critique life in the city, with a special emphasis on San Antonio and its environs. Hes published a volume of poems,Yardbirds Squawking at the Moon,and is proud to be included in the upcomingAnthology of Chicago Poets. Unfortunately, that primitive machine couldnt store any more than thirty to forty typewritten pages on its hard drive. Additional features include four door panels with a fixed shelf inside for ample storage. I owned a record player during my youth and learned to appreciate music by improvisational jazz artists. After returning home and getting cleaned up, I head over to my favorite, caf. Im a poet in the truest sense of the word, meaning I dont have much money. We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website, Includes: One (1) Media Console Without question, I knew my writing style was organic, the same as it is today. I soon found that the main role of my vintage desk would be to collect dust in the West Side apartment in which I lived, an area of the city that I wrote about as Bluesville. But a place named Bluesville is not where youd expect to find many people with desks in their apartments, and that made me an oddball in that community. The first complete adult novel I read was Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and that story led me to Twains memoir about his days as a cub pilot in Old Times on the Mississippi. There is a marvelous caf here in San Antonio that I visit almost every day, one that is especially fond of poets and writers, but Im afraid to mention its name because someone might decide to go there and sit at my table. Its not that Ive used it in anything Ive written, but if I did it would be an act of overuse. He also helped bring to campus James Welch, Ishmael Reed, Carlos Fuentes, Toni Morrison, and others whom I would not associate with the word adroit. There will be a final celebration and open mic at Poetic Republic Cafe on August 18th. Guest poets, including Natalia Trevio, John Olivares Espinoza, Clemonce Heard, and Emmy Prez, will visit the course both in-person and virtually to discuss craft issues. A few years later during my career in higher education, scholar Shirley Fisher Fishkin, published a book titled, In it she argued that Twain was influenced by the speech of enslaved and free Black people he knew during his youth in Missouri. Waterfall Edge The desk, a sixty-four-inch Danish modern with no drawers under its laminated solid wood top, fit perfectly along the wall of the enclosed front porch that I used for my study in an apartment located blocks away from the townships historic Frank Lloyd Wright houses and the home where Ernest Hemingway lived during his short time in that Chicago suburb. I may have owned a desk, a desk I could pose in front of for pictures, but it had only a narrow opening underneath for my legs, and it sat too high for me to write on comfortably with a typewriter. I still had hopes of publishing my dissertation, an urban crime novel that makes Colin Whiteheads recent Harlem Shuffle look tame. Two open shelves give you a place to keep books, papers, and office supplies. Material: Solid wood and Acacia wood construction I later discovered Hughes wrote the poem shortly after his high school graduation while traveling by train from Ohio to visit his estranged father who lived in Mexico. undefined out of 5 stars with undefined reviews. Due to frequent relocations during the years I worked in higher education, the desk found itself in the clutches of too many ruthless movers who handled its delicate frame. A Customer Experience Specialist will get in touch with you immediately. They are bricks youll need to find at a place like Restoration Hardware and not Home Depot. look tame. I find that the act of continuously sipping helps to fuel my work as much as the intake of caffeine. The support panels eventually broke, and after another move or two, the panels could no longer be reassembled with joint connector bolts, duct tape, and construction glue, leaving me with nothing but a giant slab of a desktop. Other writers can offer similar stories. Little of what theyre trying to sell will help in your effort to come up with a crucial metaphor about the necessity of sunflowers or the tenderness of your grandmothers hands. Showcase Your Store On Our Store Locator Page! He used as many semicolons as youd find catfish in that river. I consider it writing time because during my walks I compose parts of poems and stories by speaking into my phones voice recorder. His poems and stories helped to inspire my desire to become a writer. I was in Lafayette, LA, by this time, on my own after my marriage suffered a fate worse than the ruin of that desk. It read like a poem written while in motion, like on a train or a ship. One of the paragraphs in that tale had to be two or three pages in length, and some of the sentences longer than the bridge that crosses the Mississippi when traveling from Illinois into St. Louis. After that, he spent a quarter-century as a college and university professor. on that desk using my first computer, a Kaypro that weighed as much as a crate of bricks. I spent more time thinking about ways to escape than I did about writing. I knew a few older jazz fanatics whod talk about how avant-garde jazz musicians would start out by playing a melodic line but then take it out to sealike on a voyagesomething I could always sense while listening to Coltrane play My Favorite Things, Spiritual, and A Love Supreme. Thats why I knew early on that I wanted to follow Coltranes influence. We are ready to answer any questions. That meant the table that also served as my writing desk had to go. Hanging by a short cord covered in beige fabric is a tall drum shade, measuring 12" tall and 8" in diameter, The lamp is operated by a rotary socket switch, turning the lamp on and off. Can you describe your first writing desk for us? Unfortunately, that primitive machine couldnt store any more than thirty to forty typewritten pages on its hard drive. Beauty too, but dont we also have to take voyages to find beauty in the messiness of our collective lives? Chat in. My reliance on coffee shops began in the mid-nineties after I moved back to Illinois to serve on the faculty at a very conservative religious college outside of Chicago. My quandary was how could I express myself like a Twain devotee and still earn a degree in creative writing alongside writers who were under the influence of Gordon Lish? www.reggiescottyoung.com Its made from solid mango wood with a rustic finish that highlights its natural wood grain. Merwin to our campus. I tried to deduce the words meaning from the context in which he used it, but I knew right off it wasnt a word for me. I bought a pair with the hope that they might serve as platforms for my desktop. This desk rests on a powder-coated iron base with a black finish, for a mixed material look that works in a variety of spaces, from industrial to farmhouse-inspired. With my Danish modern desk at home now situated in a musty and flood-prone basement due to a growing family, I lacked an environment conducive to academic research, paper grading, and creative production. I would argue that if you want to write for people who live in trailer parks, along the Rio Grande border, in Texass Hill Country, its Panhandle, or a community that you think of as Bluesville, respect your calling. One of my earliest writing instructors was Mark Twain. My point is that writers, especially in top university writing programs and upscale workshops, are at times instructed to write in ways that will be most attractive to, readers. We are proud to be your literary home. There were pullout trays for writing letters, but the wooden chair it came with was difficult to maneuver from side to side without bumping my legs against its hardness. If I needed to work during dinner, all I had to do was shift to the left to enjoy a plate of my mothers smothered cube steak with mashed potatoes and green beans. If you were to read Algren today, youd understand where Im coming from. My structures may appear to work more like rivers than skyscrapers on the page, but the purpose of both is to shape the flow of language. A young woman I dated at the time who camefrom a more affluent background, complained that the table was tacky, but I argued it was an expression of ghetto-postmodernism. Since my parents lived in the apartment below mine, my mother made sure I was a well-fed grad-student writer. Carver during his career produced what has become known as K-Mart or trailer park fiction, but Lish turned his stories into consumable goods for high-cultured readers of magazines like, . Lastly, failure to comply with requests, or failure to complete the returns process, may result in Abbysons refusal of return. My reliance on coffee shops began in the mid-nineties after I moved back to Illinois to serve on the faculty at a very conservative religious college outside of Chicago. Likewise, no matter how organic any content I come up with might be, I must engage in the hard and at times difficult work of giving it structure. His poems, short stories, and works of creative nonfiction have appeared inChicago Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Oxford American,riverSedge, and other publications. After returning home and getting cleaned up, I head over to my favorite not-to-be-named caf. While sitting at a workshop table in University Hall, I scratched my head the first time I heard him say it. My point is that writers, especially in top university writing programs and upscale workshops, are at times instructed to write in ways that will be most attractive to New Yorker readers. Hi Reggie, thank you for chatting with us today. Sale, 7904 E. Chaparral St. #A110-511 - Not a showroom. Our products include leather, rattan, upholstered chairs, solid wood dining furniture and case goods with styles ranging from transitional to modern. What is the one piece of writing advice that you most value? See how a store is chosen for you. Despite the colleges numerous social prohibitions, what alienated me the most was the emphasis it placed on Protestant religious traditions that didnt include great men and women of faith who looked anything like me. Add mid century style and ambient task lighting to your space with the Reggie table lamp. Visit Reggie online: Im sure the word is worth a beaucoup number of points in Scrabble and might show up in a New York Times crossword puzzle from time to time, but although writers should consider all words fair play, it doesnt mean all words are appropriate. He used as many semicolons as youd find catfish in that river. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. I may have owned a desk, a desk I could pose in front of for pictures, but it had only a narrow opening underneath for my legs, and it sat too high for me to write on comfortably with a typewriter. But highly organized writers who begin the writing process by scoring or constructing outlines of the stories and narrative poems they plan to write must still engage in an organic process. Taking hurtful voyages should be an important aspect of our work. Sign up to enjoy discounts, exclusive sales, and VIP / member-only perks! Despite rapid transit trains, whiskey barrel tables, and Scandinavian desks, at some point I learned to do my best writing in coffee shops. Sign-up to save and receive VIP benefits like bigger discounts & special promotions. Hes published scholarly books and academic essays, but creative writing was his first love. Without question, I knew my writing style was organic, the same as it is today. Pull it out when it becomes of value to your writing. Even after you devise an overall structure for a piece of writing, you still have to fill it with figurative content, just as lyricists have to come up with compelling words to go with a musical score. Hughes first published poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, took me as a reader on a voyage through time and into other parts of the world due to his references to rivers that played significant roles in African American history. They were authors of adroit works of poetry, but not the kind of poems I felt called to write. If I were to write a treatise called. He also talked a lot about John Ashbury and brought W.S. probably composed handwritten drafts of his stories on Formica counters in Wicker Park diners or on bar tops in rowdy Milwaukee Avenue taverns. Hanging by a short cord covered in black fabric is a tall drum shade, measuring 12" tall and 8" in diameter. Reggie Scott Younggrew up in Chicago and used writing to escape life in the streets. Recommendations and rewards curated just for you by ShopStyle. Phone: 602-574-3573. Additionally, were more than happy to help you order another product if your original order hasn't already shipped. At 28" tall, this lamp is the perfect addition to nightstands, desks, or end tables. Many writers have rituals that are sacred to their writing process. Nevertheless, Lishs minimalist movement steamrolled through the institutional writing culture of the era. Write about those people and places in a way that honors both them and you. If I dropped adroit into my poem titled The Bluesville Boogie, it would come off sounding phony. Those interactions served as a major influence on the vernacular language Huck spoke in. workspace. If I dropped adroit into my poem titled The Bluesville Boogie, it would come off sounding phony. By far the hottest geometric pattern in home dcor, the hexagon honeycomb motif, shown here on Reggie, adds three-dimensional interest to the tables surface. Does this also apply to how you lay out a story? The lamp is operated by a rotary socket switch and is powered by a 5' cord covered in black fabric. Those simple words are essential to our use of language. If your order hasnt shipped and youve had a change of heart, you may cancel and receive a full refund of your purchase by contacting us atsupport@abbysonliving.com. Every piece in this glamorous collection features crystal-like button tuft details and cute wooden-bun legs in a crisp white finish. See our price match guarantee. My structures may appear to work more like rivers than skyscrapers on the page, but the purpose of both is to shape the flow of language. The summer before I enrolled in the graduate creative writing program at UIC, I acquired a more practical desk for my apartment, one that offered me greater freedom of movement than the dust collector in my front room. Please sign in to our newsletter for promotions, sales and news! For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Like we should all write for audiences that prefer Mary Martins rendition of My Favorite Things on Broadway. 2 Year Furniture Protection Plan ($150-$199.99) - Allstate. We promise to only send you good things. Then while browsing at Louises Real Wood Furniture store one day, I spotted a pair of thirty-inch tall unfinished bookcases. I wrote my dissertation, a multi-genre novel titled. $899.00 Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Color (Top): Natural. a novel that was to become an American classic. If you were to see them in the study of my home in San Antonio today, youd believe that the desktop and bookcases underneath were built as a single unit. If you were to read Algren today, youd understand where Im coming from. , especially Frank OHara. As a result, I found myself caught up in a holy war against the use of adverbs and other writing excesses. Little of what theyre trying to sell will help in your effort to come up with a crucial metaphor about the necessity of sunflowers or the tenderness of your grandmothers hands. This workshop is open to writers with various degrees of experience in poetry and will focus on crafting poems for the page with an emphasis on exploring poetic forms. The Writers Desk features the desks and writing practices of Gemini Ink faculty, visiting authors, teaching artists, volunteers, students, interns, staff, partners and more. He also talked a lot about John Ashbury and brought W.S. I spent more time thinking about ways to escape than I did about writing. The institution was so pious that no one who smoked, consumed alcoholic beverages, danced, identified as gay, or engaged in sex outside of marriage could attend school or work there. Simple and streamlined, this writing desk brings a generous 42" wide work surface to your home office, bedroom, or living room. Items must be in usable condition to be eligible for return (for example: no stains, tears, or another soiling, including odors). JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. He also helped bring to campus James Welch, Ishmael Reed, Carlos Fuentes, Toni Morrison, and others whom I would not associate with the word adroit. Hes probably the only one Ive heard speak the word to this day. In fairness to Anania, he directed my dissertation and encouraged my interest in writers such as Henry Dumas and Robert Hayden. Next to it on my desk were piles of the old 5 floppy disks that looked like square frisbees. Thanks in advance for your support. The impulse that led him to draft the poem in the margins of one of his fathers letters stemmed from the creative excitement he felt as the train passed over the Mississippi River. Most cafs offer bottomless cups of drip coffee, but not free refills of specialty drinks or cold brews. Missing an appointment for a return to be picked up from your address may incur a fee. I worked at the Montgomery Ward furniture warehouse in Franklin Park, my first extended experience outside of Chicagos municipal borders. Your concerns are very important to us, and we pride ourselves on making sure you are satisfied every time. Most days I order the house coffee and a pastry before I begin my work. A nearby Caribou Coffee location provided me with the creative sanctuary I needed. Park the rest in the drawer of your dust-collecting writing desk. If you were to see them in the study of my home in San Antonio today, youd believe that the desktop and bookcases underneath were built as a single unit. Most days I order the house coffee and a pastry before I begin my work. When I sat at that desk, I often felt like Houdini underwater in a straitjacket. Safety stops are included on all case good drawers, as well as crystal-like pull knobs for an extra sparkle. Writing entails explorations into our humanity. Skip to the beginning of the images gallery. Unlike most writers I see in coffee shops, I never order lattes or specialty drinks. Find the best way for you to express. Refunds will be issued in the form of the original payment, and returns are subject to the policies set forth below. by Michael Petracca, a fiction handbook that I used at times in undergraduate writing workshops, included a chapter on different approaches to writing narratives that he classified as structural and organic.

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