#25 Rose Merrill, writer
'First drafts: longhand slouching on a sofa'
Raised in Nova Scotia by hippies who’d travelled Europe in a VW van before her birth, Merrill couldn’t wait to get out into the world and have all the adventures she’d missed out on. Following Creative Writing studies at Bard College in upstate New York and Concordia University in Montreal, she arrived in the UK in her early 20s with a Canada Council First Novel Grant in her pocket. London life soon turned her creative voice upside down and she washed up on the shores of Berlin in late 2000. Merrill found the grey ruins of the city mirrored the state of her own psychology perfectly. Currently, she works as a translator, editor and writer focusing on stories about women finding their power—often via supernatural means.
Where do you write?
First drafts: longhand slouching on a sofa or sitting at a café table. Second drafts: either sitting at my desk or on my meditation cushion on the floor with my laptop on a chair.
Morning writer or late-night words?
Midday till evening, not usually late.
Coffee, tea, or any other drinks?
Tea: green or black with milk.
Handwritten notes or phone files?
Both.
Something to nibble while you write?
Almonds.
What's your most tempting distraction?
Cleaning 😬
Any desk essentials?
Some lovely objects (they change).
What's on the speakers?
Specially composed piano meditation music on headphones (but only if there’s annoying background noise or I’m really unfocused).
Writer uniform?
Warm, fitted, and stretchy—like a second skin.
What are your pre-writing rituals?
Preparing aforementioned snacks and tea. Ideally, doing a watercolour painting of a cake or pastry (puts me in a flow state) .
Perfect bookshop to hide on a rainy day?
My room. While working at Saint George’s English Bookshop [in Berlin] for two years, I gathered quite a pile to work through, and home is the cosiest hideaway I know…
What's your most treasured book?
A copy of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden” that my mother gave me when I was eight.
The best word in the English language?
Abracadabra.
Three writers (dead or alive) to have dinner with:
Angela Carter, Marguerite Duras, and W. B. Yeats.
Writer portraits by Sonja Müller.