From the Desk of … Justin Taylor
This week I asked Justin Taylor, author of the story collection Everything here is the best thing ever, to share a photograph and describe one item on his desk.
I’d like to talk about the pepper mill. As you may have noticed, this desk is in fact a dining room table. Amanda and I just moved from Brooklyn, NY to Portland, OR and things at the new place are still a bit up in the air. My soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Rachel, who moved out here the same time we did, is living with us for a while. She’s an architect and also works from home a lot so during the day we turn the table into a workshare space. (The black laptop behind mine is hers.) The pepper mill lives on the table, and is sitting in a Pfaltzgraff ramekin that it wears like a diaper, so it doesn’t drop stray pepper grinds everywhere. We used to have a whole set of Pfaltzgraff dishes, which Amanda got from her mom when she went to college, but they were left behind when we moved. In addition to this ramekin, we also kept—at my insistence—a coffee mug that says “I love Pfaltzgraff” on it in that same genial dopey light-ish blue. I drink out of this mug every morning, today included. There’s nothing in the Guernica mug; I pulled it out of the cabinet and stuck it in the picture because I love them. But everything else on the table is something I intend—best laid plans, etc.—to deal with at some point today, and then stow back in some corner or half-unpacked box when the dinner hour rolls round. – Justin Taylor
Erin Dorney is the poetry editor for Third Point Press and lives in Minnesota. Follow her on Twitter at @edorney or learn more at www.erindorney.com.
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