Q&A: Laura Dickerman, Author of ‘Hot Desk’

We chat with author Laura Dickerman about Hot Desk, which is Younger meets Writers & Lovers in this rollicking, sparkling, and funny novel that spans decades and generations of a family in the publishing industry.

Hi, Laura! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Since I was very young, I always thought of myself as a writer. I studied creative writing and fiction in college and graduate school. When I became an English teacher then a mother and a tutor, I stopped writing as much. I have a few poems, some creative nonfiction, and a YA novel in the desk drawer, but it wasn’t until very recently that I wrote HOT DESK. Although I’m leaning into the idea of being a late bloomer (like Laura Ingalls Wilder, who published Little House on the Prairie at 65), my dream come true has also been a long time coming. I am living proof that it’s never too late!

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I was such a voracious reader as a child—checking out piles of books from the library every week, from Anna Karenina to bodice rippers—(yes, I read waaaay beyond my years!) that I always appreciated the power of imagination and imagery; books were a force in my house, and I knew I wanted to create worlds and characters myself.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: As I said, we read early and often in my house, but the books I returned to again and again were A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken. I was quite taken with drafty English manors and plucky young heroines.
• The one that made you want to become an author: Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery; Emily was an orphan with purple eyes and a deep, otherworldly connection to imagination and her identity as a writer. I spent a lot of time wishing my eyes were purple.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I often think about Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement; it was such a devastating revelation at the end that forces the reader to reevaluate everything that has come before and to examine the role of fiction and what, if anything, a writer owes to her reader and what a reader expects from a story.

Your debut novel, Hot Desk, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Funny, romantic, poignant, books, friendship

What can readers expect?

Expect the unexpected! HOT DESK begins as if it’s going to be a work-place satire, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romcom that takes place in the post-pandemic world of publishing in New York City, and all those elements are important, but with the introduction of a dual time that jumps back 40 years to the glamorous literary Manhattan of the early 1980s, the book adds elements of a bookish mystery, the reclaiming of women’s voices, a mother/daughter story, and the theme of friendship that mirrors the relationships and events of the present day.

Where did the inspiration for Hot Desk come from?

My younger brother works in publishing, and one day he called me with an one-sentence assignment (as a former English teacher, I love an assignment) that sprang from a work call introducing “hot desking,” a flexible space-sharing initiative to save money. He ordered me to “write about two young editors forced to share a desk who fall in love.” Immediately, the characters of Rebecca Blume and Ben Heath leaped fully-formed into my head. My brother provided some details about work life in a publishing house (phone pods! Aquisition meetings!) and as I wrote, the characters of Rebecca’s mother, Jane, and her best friend Rose, began to take a more insistent shape, and I developed the early 1980s time line, drawing from my own experiences as an intern at The Paris Review and as a young woman in NYC at that time.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

Honestly, I can describe the joy of writing this book and how alive all the characters are to me as being the host of one crowded, slightly-drunken, delicious dinner party!

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

I am a start and stop kind of writer—I write feverishly in one torrent, usually late at night, then fritter around during the day, tinkering with what I have written, and ignoring scolding Panda emoji texts from my brother urging me to “Get to work!” When I was in graduate school this work-all-night schedule was made possible by sleeping til noon. Now my eyes snap open at 7 am whether I slept three hours or six. I can’t say I ever overcame this challenge, but I figured a few exhausted, giddy months were worth it to get the book finished.

This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

It was a long, long road (see above for the twenty years I did other things), but then it happened very quickly. I think I had been holding myself back by expecting a certain kind of writerly perfection that was defined by a graduate-school literary workshop style. When I unlocked the voice of HOT DESK (which I think of as writing like I speak, if that makes sense) I had so much fun. And everything flowed easily from that. I’ve been incredibly lucky, and I don’t have to remind myself to enjoy every single first along the way.

What’s next for you?

I am working on another novel that is also a mash-up of different genres. It begins with a dead body; there is a second-chance romance between a woman who returns to her childhood home in Vermont and her sexy high-school boyfriend, and there is an eccentric, irascible character based on my own father. I have only two chapters written, but all the characters are alive and jostling in my head, and I can’t wait to sit down to dinner with them.

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

I loved Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino, Colored Telvision by Danzy Senna, The Wedding People by Alison Espach, The Names by Florence Knapp, The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, and so many others…I’ve just started Flashlight by Susan Choi; her earlier book Trust Exercise is one of my favorites and reminds me of Atonement, so I’m really looking forward to this one.

Will you be picking up Hot Desk? Tell us in the comments below!