Maya Angelou 1988 · Winston-Salem
Write in a rented room
06:30–13:00 · Estimated
Estimated by typical tue. 13:00 is the midpoint of the stated departure window.Source timing: Start around 06:30; leave between 12:30 and 13:30.
“try to be at work by 6:30”
Short verbatim excerpt · Maya Angelou · interview by George Plimpton
Open the original for the surrounding passage.
The Art of Fiction No. 119
The Paris Review 116 · Fall 1990 · based on their 1988 conversation at 92Y
Questions about starting a working day and revising
Passage: Starting a working day
Timing & context
She wrote lying across a hotel bed.
Her hotel-writing routine, with variable finishing hours. Evening revision could also follow dinner; no bedtime is supplied.
1988 is the year of the conversation underlying the 1990 interview, according to The Paris Review’s 2017 retrospective. Its introduction places her home in Winston-Salem; the hotel-room habits she describes were practiced in several towns.
The Paris Review · dating the conversation ↗