By Domenica Di Piazza, Editorial Director, TFCB
I love the Guardian’s “Writers’ Rooms” online series. It’s a great collection of photos and short notes about the spaces in which writers work.
Inspired by the series, I created the “TFCB Writers’ and Editors’ Rooms” photo essay below.
Let’s start with my work space at the Lerner office building. It’s in an old warehouse (think Edward Hopper), and I’m lucky to have an office with a big window. (Note the exercise ball, which I use as a chair to help with the hazards of the editorial life; see my post from last Tuesday.)
My work space at home looks like this. The table is from my mother, the desk is from her grandmother, and the chair is inherited from a friend, who bought it in the 1940s.
Below is author Catherine Gourley’s desk—and just as important, her cat Buddy. For TFCB, Cathy has written the star-reviewed Images and Issues of Women in the Twentieth Century series as well as The Horrors of Andersonville, a new TFCB book about life and death in a Confederate POW camp in Georgia.
Below is Christine Zuchora-Walske’s work space. She edits and writes for TFCB. Her most recent authored work for TFCB is Internet Censorship in our USA TODAY’s Debate series. I love Christine’s Swear Jar in the right corner. (Her son’s idea.)
This is Francesca Davis Di Piazza’s work space. Note the vintage Eero Saarinen tulip chair. A garage sale steal at $20.00! Francesca is one of our star VGS authors (her Zimbabwe in Pictures was a Society of School Librarians International [SSLI] Honor Book in 2005), and she has some exciting TFCB and Lerner imprint projects in the works right now. And yes, we’re related. She’s my sister.
TFCB author Stuart Kallen works out of the space below. He lives in California and taunts me with emailed descriptions of the scent of flowering jasmine and orange that wafts into his study. He’s also a performing musician, thus the guitar. Stuart’s most recent TFCB title is The Aftermath of the Sandinista Revolution, and he has several exciting projects in the works for future seasons with us.
Alison Behnke writes and edits all kinds of books for Lerner Publishing Group. Among her many TFCB titles are Italy in Pictures, Jack Kerouac, and Kim Jong Il’s North Korea. To make her happy in her work space (below), she says she needs a cup of tea or coffee, music, and reminders of Rome (her favorite city) and of singer/songwriter Morrissey.
And here is the office of science writer Fred Bortz. I love the framed dust jacket (center left) of Catastrophe! Great Engineering Failure–And Success (W.H. Freeman, Scientific American Books for Young Readers, 1995). It was one of nine books designated a “Selector’s Choice” on the 1996 NSTA-CBC list of Outstanding Trade Books for Children. For TFCB, Fred has written Seven Wonders of Exploration Technology in our Seven Wonders series, not to mention Astrobiology in the Lerner imprint series Cool Science.
This is Peg Goldstein’s work space. Peg is a big W.C. Fields/Mae West fan (see them on the screensaver?). The first non-Lerner person to correctly identify the name of the movie from which Peg’s screensaver is pulled will receive a free copy of Peg’s favorite authored work with TFCB, America in the 1920s. (She co-authored this Decades book with Edmund Lindop.)
And finally (for now), here is the study of author/editor Deborah Kops. Notice Elsie, Deborah’s Portuguese water dog? For TFCB, Deborah has written Palenque and Machu Picchu in our beautiful Unearthing Ancient Worlds series.
Wasn’t that fun? Don’t forget to check in next week for more from TFCB!
(Photos: courtesy of the authors and editors themselves)