Behind the Scenes With Writers: Desk Porn Edition

It’s probably no secret that I obsess over weird stuff. And if it was a secret before, it’s not now, because I just published that on this blog, did you know that?

Anyway, some of my obsessions include very sharp pencils, watching Monk, playing Bejeweled Blitz, eating salads, playing board games, winning board games, Aaron Sorkin, and the internet (duh). But I would also say that chief among my obsessions is office supplies. I could spend all day in Office Max or Staples. Anywhere you can decide which kind of label maker to buy? Four selections of five-sectioned college-ruled notebooks? Sign me up, please. I love anything that goes on in a desk. So I got really excited when I thought to email some writers I know to ask for pictures of their desks. If you like a good desk picture as much as I do, you should keep reading, because there are some awesome pictures below the jump.

This is what I hope is just the first installment of Desk Porn, as I do have many more pictures to share than I’m willing to fit into one post.

First and foremost, I want to encourage you to click the hell out of these pictures to enlarge them and see what kinds of good things are happening on these desks. Please believe I have been trying to zoom in on just about everything in these pictures. That makes it seem less weird that you want to look closely, too.

The first writer to get back to me was Tim Liu. Tim was my thesis instructor in grad school at Bennington, and I was girlishly excited to see what his writing desk looked like.

Just as I suspected, there is at least one Hello Kitty product that is visible to us, which looks like it could possibly be a Pez dispenser. Very awesome.

This is the “desk” of T.J. Jarrett, who writes mainly from The Red Door Saloon in Nashville, TN. I have been there twice with her, but never witnessed the magic of watching her write there, as I assume this is a Tuesday or Wednesday night bar activity, as opposed to a Saturday or Friday night bar activity. Though I could be wrong. One never knows what Tanya Jarrett is capable of.

J.R. Angelella calls his desk “eccentric-less”, though I’ve seen less eccentric stuff, to be sure.

This, of course, is the desk of our own lovable Mensah DeMary, and also home to Specter headquarters. Alongside the beautiful wall art, we can see a Batman mug at work here, as well as a little Batman action figure, and a pack of Marlboro Menthols and a pretty full ashtray.

This picture of the desk of Joshua H. McGee was kindly sent to me by Joshua H. McGee himself! I realize that sentence kind of makes it seem like I snuck into the homes of the other writers to snap photos of their desks. You can think what you want.

Matthew Landrum‘s desk makes my husband jealous, because he has a copy of the OED. Also featured: a baby typewriter, and a little brown ball thing. Explanation, M?

It looks like Chad Redden‘s cat is getting some work done here. Also a cameo appearance by Wheat Thins and a liquor bottle. Nice work!

And of course I know you’ve been aching to see a picture of my desk, where it all happens. But like the last Harry Potter movie (har har) you’re going to have to wait for that.