Where Writers Write: Kali Lamparelli

Welcome to this week’s edition of Where Writers Write, an exciting series here on the White Space where we’ll get a glimpse into the places and spaces where writers create their art. Kali and I have been friends since college, and I wanted to share her story because she has such a unique take on the concept of writing space. If you’re interested in sharing your space with us, shoot me an email at kristinoffilerwrites@gmail.com.

My name is Kali and I am an aspiring poetess. I tend to write poems discussing violence against women in a very frank manner. I first met Kristin on my 19th birthday when we were sophomores in college. She’s the best gift I’ve ever received and I’m not shocked she’s asking about writing spaces. Throughout our friendship we have had several writing spaces together. We don’t have the luxury of proximity on our side (we live about 1.5 hours away from each other), so our writing spaces have been primarily online and through letter writing. Depending on our moods, we switch from writing handwritten letters to utilizing online spaces.

I think having one space limits creativity. In college, my writing belonged on my jump drive and traveled with me to many university computers where I’d sit and write for 10 minutes or stand and write for 20. Life is motion and my poetry belongs to life in motion.

So without further commentary I’ve answered some of Kristin’s questions:

What is your writing space like?

My writing space is urban and full of noise. It exists in chaotic spaces that I seldom ever come out of.

Do you keep a writing routine? If so, what is your routine?

My routine is my daily fragment journal (a nice eco-friendly journal). By fragment journal I mean it looks something like those childhood collages we created when we chopped our Cosmo magazines up and pasted them into shadowy dreams of what we wanted to become. My daily fragments are filled with angry or sad bursts, as well as things that make my heart spin with anxiety (and by anxiety, I mean what I feel when real joy overtakes me).

What’s something unique and interesting about your writing space?

It’s mobile. It sits in my purse next to the best friend also know as a pen. I don’t have a dedicated writing space because, for me, poetry exists everywhere and there is no one true south or north in which my poems exist. I’m too motion-oriented for my poetry to belong to a desk in a catalogued way or on a computer in alphabetized files, like in college. Now, I like my words everywhere.

If you could have any writing space in the world, what would it look like and why?

I already have that. I love riding the train with no particular destination and writing against the noise of life. I love sitting on the beach with the waves drowning my feet and feeling poetry fill me. I love driving and feeding my mind with poems from past fragments. I love 3 am walks and writing against the silence. For me it is about livable, meaningful, motioning poetry. Just listen; the act of poetry is life itself, and that’s what my mobile writing space aims to capture.

Kali Lamparelli lives and writes in Massachusetts. She works for her family’s business by day and creates poetry in her down time. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Lesley University. 

Thank you so much for sharing your writing space with us, Kali! What do you guys think? Share your thoughts and your dream writing space in the comments!