Some writers, depending on their mood, might say something like, "I am visited by a UFO on Saturday at midnight, and the aliens put them in my brain." If they're feeling ambitious, they might write an essay or even an entire blog on the subject. If they're tired and have run out of idea-steam, they might reply, "I don't know," or maybe just, "Everywhere."
In most cases, both the question and answer here seem to hold one assumption in common. When people ask where, they mean it in a mental capacity. Where in your head do they come from? How do you set off your synapses in a way that enables you to come out with these stories, these phrases, these things the rest of us have thought about but could never put into words? (Unless you are Harlan Ellison, who says, "Poughkeepsie." Although according to Ursula Le Guin, he also uses a mail order house in Schenectady. I wonder if anyone's ever tried to figure out which ideas are from where.)
What we never seem to consider is the literal aspect of the question: where, physically, geographically, do writers work? Answers will naturally vary; we all have different preferences for places where we work best, where our brains crank into gear from the moment we sit down. Maybe it's a bedroom, a café, an anonymous hotel room, the gym, or the shower, but it's not at all uncommon to have a space that is comfortable and, somehow, conducive to efficiency.
For centuries, many of America's best writers—indeed, some of the world's best writers—have come to New York and, in many cases, made it their home. There is something about the city that inspires them, whether in terms of setting or actually being here or both. Perhaps it is the impression New York gives of being a place where anything can happen that enables writers to make everything happen here.
That, in turn, was my inspiration for this project. When I first arrived here in August to study for the semester, I'd already had a short list of places in mind that I knew I wanted to see for their literary value, and it occurred to me that there were many more I hadn't considered. This felt like a great opportunity to experience some of them as fully as possible, and so the idea for the travelogue was born.
For the month of November, I traipsed across the city in search of these literary landmarks. Some visits were more successful and more fulfilling than others, sometimes due to reasons out of my control and sometimes due to immensely bad planning on my part. Even now, I can't say what I thought I would get out of it—perhaps some insight into the great literary minds or, more simply, a bit of rubbed-off inspiration to catalyze my own efforts—but the journey as a whole was enlightening in a way I never would've expected when I first chose the places that I wanted to see. I certainly learned a lot of new things.
...Just, maybe, not always about writing.
