Lisa Alward’s Writing Space

I can and do write almost anywhere — in coffee shops and libraries, on planes and in cars, in bed, on the floor, and occasionally at my desk — but my favourite writing space is a small blue upholstered chair that used to belong to my mother. This chair has a matching footstool where I pile books I’m either reading or hoping to read, along with a few notebooks, an extra-fine rollerball pen, and my MacBook Air. With the Air propped on a wooden lap desk, I can look across the length of the house into the backyard (where at the moment it’s snowing) or sideways through the sun porch onto the street. I’m also a bit trapped — getting up to do housework, or procrastinate in other ways, is not as easy as it would be sitting at a table. Of course, writing on a lap desk can’t be very good for my back, and writing in my living room means I have to put up with more interruptions than if I were hidden away in a room of my own, but there’s something about nestling into my blue chair with a cup of coffee and a story on the go that I just can’t resist.

Photos provided by Lisa Alward