So...OK, let's get personal now, Jeffrey. What type of environment do you like to work in ... and what does your writing space look like?

Jeffrey D. J. Kallenberg

I like to be real comfortable. My favorite place to write is in my apartment in Manhattan. I hand write everything. I don't use a computer. Eventually it gets transferred to a computer but I find writing pencil to paper to be the best. But there are certainly places -- Butler Library at Columbia University is one of them -- where you just feel comfortable when you write.

And you see something that inspires you and you scribble it on a napkin or you scribble it on the back of a someone's business card, and then that idea, once it's there, you can then take it to a place and then expand it and expound on it.

I like to write in a comfortable place and in comfortable clothing, I should say. I think Hemmingway used to get up in the morning and dress with a starched white shirt and tie to write. I like to write as comfortable as I can.

More about this poet