Inside Joshua Henkin’s Park Slope Brownstone
What do you do?
I’m a novelist. When I’m not doing that I’m directing the MFA Program in Fiction Writing at Brooklyn College. And helping raise two daughters. And trying to get some sleep.
How long have you lived in Brooklyn?
For the last 13 years, minus one year when I was living in Philadelphia, and that year I was commuting back and forth to Brooklyn, living on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Why did you move to Brooklyn?
I was living in Ann Arbor, and my then-girlfriend-now-wife was living in Morningside Heights, eight blocks from where I grew up and where my parents still lived. It seemed essential to my relationship with my girlfriend that we be living less than 630 miles apart. It seemed essential to my relationship with my parents that we be living more than eight blocks apart.
What’s your favorite thing about your space?
The built-in bookshelves directly behind me and, especially, the library ladder.
What’s your least favorite thing?
That I know the Internet password.
What are the three inanimate things you’d save first in a fire?
Desktop computer, laptop computer, backup hard drive.
What’s your favorite room in your space?
The one with the library ladder.
Favorite time of day?
Noon. I’ve finished the day’s writing and it’s time for lunch.
If you suddenly received a windfall of cash, what changes would you make to your space?
A personal assistant sitting in the room down the hall from me who is at once highly efficient and utterly unobtrusive. It wouldn’t be bad if he or she could cook, too.
If you could move your house/block/neighborhood to another city, which one would it be, and why?
Probably San Francisco, but then I’d have to move my friends with me. Or Montreal. But then I’d have to learn French.