June 27th, 2011 / 11:56 am
Behind the Scenes

Desktop Voyeurism: 21 Writers’ Computers

[Click on any screencap for a larger view.]

Rachel B. Glaser

 

Mathias Svalina

 

Michael Kimball

 

Vanessa Place
(left screen)
(right screen)

 

Evan Lavender-Smith

 

Tao Lin

 

Alissa Nutting

 

Jimmy Chen

 

James Boice

 

Kendra Grant Malone

 

Jon Cotner

 

Tony O’Neill

 

Adam Robinson

 

Kate Durbin

 

Zachary German

 

Stephen Graham-Jones

 

Lindsay Hunter (on her parents’ computer)

 

Shane Jones

 

Giancarlo DiTrapano

 

Kate Zambreno

 

Mike Topp

44 Comments

  1. xxy

      i was wondering how many had to be coached on how to take a desktop snapshot when i saw mr James Boice’s.

  2. M. Kitchell

      jimmy has the best desktop background

  3. M. Kitchell

      also: PCs for life

  4. deadgod

      do you mean the file icons behind the black surface with the holes in it

  5. Dawn.

      Amen. I don’t understand all the MACs. I’ve always been a PC girl.

  6. M. Kitchell

      no

  7. Asdf

      where is scott mcclanahan’s

  8. Frank Tas, the Raptor

      Props to Mr. Lin for putting the task bar on the side of the screen.

  9. Trey

      I am not being facetious when I say this is the kind of shit I am most interested in seeing on HTMLG. awesome.

  10. Leapsloth14

      This be sweet

  11. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      I am glad I am not the only person with way too much shit on my desktop.

  12. Dawn.

      I’m actually the opposite. I have literally no buttons on my desktop. Everything’s pinned to the taskbar or on the first page of my start menu. I always assumed more people had a lot of shit on their desktop and I was just anal.

  13. lorian long

      nicely done, gian

  14. Anonymous

      i’m pretty happy about the amount of boobs and genitals overall. kimball wins for most surprising, though.

  15. deadgod

      is power, this ‘no’

  16. Matthew Simmons

      Moose!

  17. bobby

      Whoah, I never would have guessed you were a die hard-PC guy. You seem much more human now. 

  18. bobby

      Whoah, I never would have guessed you were a die hard-PC guy. You seem much more human now. 

  19. lily hoang

      nice.

  20. Anonymous

      no sam pink as usual.

  21. Tummler

      German’s is appropriately minimalist.

  22. Blake Butler

      asked sam. no answer. i think he writes on the palms of his hands.

  23. Anonymous

      i think a non-existent background is a valid desktop background.

      but i feel you.  the comment was just an observation.

  24. Anonymous

      for the record, i like jimmy’s and gian’s.

      i definetely would think, “don’t try to fuck this guy/girl,” if I walked up on Kate Durbin’s desktop by chance.

  25. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      I just noticed Kate Zambreno was watching PRETTY LITTLE LIARS. Nice.

  26. Leapsloth14

      I would love to know the ratio of people who sent you the desktop in under four minutes versus those that did not.

  27. Penina

      Maybe he was being ironic?

  28. M. Kitchell

      wait does edward mullany have a book coming out? that is awesome, his twitter rules.

  29. deadgod

      I didn’t see it for a while either

      . . . or are you talking about the chances of anthony leading the team to a championship

  30. NLY

      haha, know don’t laugh, it hurts

  31. bartleby_taco

      Dang! I was hoping Dennis Cooper would be there. People whose desktop I’d like to see: Dennis Cooper, Roberto Bolano, DFW, Cesar Aira, Wittgenstein, Kant, Theogenes, etc. I’d like to see Michele Houllebecq’s search history, if you catch my drift.

  32. bartleby_taco

      Also: just finished “Ugly Man” and at the back Dennis Cooper lists a bunch of his favorite shit, including his top 50 Bob Pollard songs as well as songs in general. Find myself often thinking about what kind of music people who write listen to. It was pretty cool to find out that DC likes GBV and Sebadoh and Spacemen 3 and SY etc etc.

  33. bartleby_taco

      Am suggesting that HTMLGiant should post authors’ top 5/10 fav albums/songs to make myself clear btw. Interesting tidbit: I actually remember M Kitchell from a livejournal music rating community from years ago before I started frequenting this website regularly.

  34. xxy

      ironic would be a snapshot of the top of a desk.

  35. M. Kitchell

      haha, was it sound_rationale?

  36. M. Kitchell

      haha, was it sound_rationale?

  37. dole

      now that I have an apple computer (since 01/2011) I have come to support PC users strongly, but I will not give up the apple, for now.

  38. Ana Bozicevic

      more desktop porn please.

  39. Anonymous
  40. bartleby_taco

      hehe yeap!

  41. gavin

      Seeing five things open on Stephen Graham Jones’ desktop confirmed my suspicion he writes five novels at a time.  But turns out he just surfs itunes and gmail like the rest of us.  Disappointing.  

  42. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      Mike Kitchell and the internet are actually the same person.

  43. Tyler Gobble

      this is a wonderful idea. makes me reconsider my desktop image, file organization, etc. 

  44. Russ

      Dude really needs to plug his shit in, it’s gonna die soon.