May 26th, 2009 / 4:31 pm
Word Spaces

Word Spaces (12): Amelia Gray

Amelia Gray is the author of AM/PM (featherproof) and Museum of the Weird (forthcoming from FC2). She recently won the FC2 Fiction Prize. I’ve linked to a page on her website that lists many publications online that you may read over. Also, here’s an audio recording of Amelia’s reading from AM/PM in Tucson for a reading thing at Congress, I think.

Various information about her and her work can be read here:

AM/PM reviewed at Literary License

Interview w/ Ryan Manning

AM/PM reviewed by PH Madore

Amelia Gray’s favorite novellas

Below is her word space. Enjoy.

desk

My desk is actually a credenza, given to me by some friends who couldn’t fit it into their new place. I never got into those lightweight Ikea desks that break apart when you try to move them anywhere. In college I had a desk made of solid oak from an office sale of the First National Bank of Wichita in 1951. It was so heavy, it nearly killed the guys who tried to move it out down a flight of stairs.

standing

You wouldn’t know at first glance but my credenza desk is the heaviest piece of furniture on the planet. It is heavier than the banker’s desk. I could dance on it without it budging. That is the sign of a good desk.

mug

This coffee mug was a gift from my mother. The poem is attributed to Jack Piatt and is copyrighted.

lemon

On the windowsill is a lemon I took from my parents’ house in Tucson. They have a lemon tree in the backyard and if there’s fruit when I’m visiting, I’ll come home with thirty or forty lemons. I juice and freeze most of them but this one escaped and gets to perch on the windowsill for the remainder of its days.

what-the-lemon-sees

This is what the lemon sees. There’s a great tree right outside my window that is home to lizards and squirrels and all manner of birds. Once I saw a squirrel eating a pancake there. Last week, there was a baby cardinal who hung out there for a couple days while his feathers dried. This week, three baby doves. All the baby birds hang out in this tree and ask me if I’m making the right choices in life.

chair

This is what happens when you get into writing fiction, kids. You have to sit in a broken chair you found on the side of the road. Let this be a lesson.

____

 

That is all. Thanks, Amelia.

You can order AM/PM from featherproof here.

Tags: ,

40 Comments

  1. sam pink

      i want to know more about the lemon.

  2. sam pink

      i want to know more about the lemon.

  3. Blake Butler

      she’s too good

  4. Blake Butler

      she’s too good

  5. Shane Jones

      might have a crush on amelia gray.

  6. Shane Jones

      might have a crush on amelia gray.

  7. michael j

      I want to know more about that pancake eating squirrel.

      There’s a lot that goes into imagining a squirrel eating a pancake. First it’s hilarious. Then kind of frightening (for some reason), then hilarious again. And when you realize that when you watch squirrels, they stop and look at you… man…

      Some day her house is gonna be famous.

  8. michael j

      I want to know more about that pancake eating squirrel.

      There’s a lot that goes into imagining a squirrel eating a pancake. First it’s hilarious. Then kind of frightening (for some reason), then hilarious again. And when you realize that when you watch squirrels, they stop and look at you… man…

      Some day her house is gonna be famous.

  9. PHM

      Always lovely, I think.

  10. PHM

      Always lovely, I think.

  11. ryan

      now i can’t stop thinking about Lemon by Lawrence Krauser

  12. ryan

      now i can’t stop thinking about Lemon by Lawrence Krauser

  13. HTMLGIAN

      Man, this workspace makes me feel disgusting. My keyboard rests in a pile of cigarette ashes, weed dust, bottle caps, dog hair, and cocaine residue. There are actually a couple of cigarettes extinguished on the desk itself. The keys on my keyboard look like I dip my hands in glue before typing. This gives me hope for change.

  14. HTMLGIAN

      Man, this workspace makes me feel disgusting. My keyboard rests in a pile of cigarette ashes, weed dust, bottle caps, dog hair, and cocaine residue. There are actually a couple of cigarettes extinguished on the desk itself. The keys on my keyboard look like I dip my hands in glue before typing. This gives me hope for change.

  15. Matthew Simmons

      Pretty sure HTMLGiant as a whole has a crush on Amelia Gray. Readers and writers alike.

  16. Matthew Simmons

      Pretty sure HTMLGiant as a whole has a crush on Amelia Gray. Readers and writers alike.

  17. pr

      Gian, you saw my space? I posted it here. I’m a pig, But God bless the not pigs. And god bless us, the pigs! It’s all good.

  18. HTMLGIAN

      Yes, I did. We need to trash a bar soon the way we trash our workspaces.

  19. HTMLGIAN

      Yes, I did. We need to trash a bar soon the way we trash our workspaces.

  20. Ken Baumann

      Yep.

  21. Ken Baumann

      Yep.

  22. Molly Gaudry

      Love this. Thanks for posting! The lemon is priceless, and the chair is a shocker there at the end.

      Amelia, great arches!

  23. Molly Gaudry

      Love this. Thanks for posting! The lemon is priceless, and the chair is a shocker there at the end.

      Amelia, great arches!

  24. pr

      yes!

  25. pr

      yes!

  26. More about the lemon. at Amelia Gray

      […] posted my Word Space over at HTML Giant. Sam Pink wanted to know more about the lemon so I took some more pictures of […]

  27. Amelia

      You all are the absolute end. Molly made my arches blush.

      Hi Sam, I posted more pictures of the lemon on my blog.

      Thanks again Ryan, this was fun. Hi everyone

  28. Amelia

      You all are the absolute end. Molly made my arches blush.

      Hi Sam, I posted more pictures of the lemon on my blog.

      Thanks again Ryan, this was fun. Hi everyone

  29. Ryan Call

      hooray

  30. Ryan Call

      hooray

  31. the scowl » Blog Archive » The Thursday Agitation: Amelia Gray

      […] evolve — a much more resonant emotional experience than one might expect from flash fiction. Gray’s longer work is equally distinctive; a collection of that, Museum of the Weird, is due out next year […]

  32. Book Notes - Amelia Gray ("AM/PM") | IndieFan - Independent Television | Music, Movies, News & Culture

      […] HTMLGIANT profile of the author Michael Kimball profile of the author Orange Alert interview with the author The Scowl interview with the author […]

  33. Zashkaser

      Good to see you’re doing some research to fill in the ???

  34. Zashkaser

      Good to see you’re doing some research to fill in the ???

  35. milan
  36. milan
  37. yuniya
  38. yuniya
  39. Richard

      for sure

  40. Richard

      for sure