Thanks, everybody, for the huge positive response to the Queens Writers Fellowship idea. I wish I had enough desk space for all! But I hope, with this rotating schedule, I can accommodate quite a few people in the future, and help all of us develop slightly better work habits that don’t involve jumping up every 15 minutes to check if the mail came.

So, allow me to introduce the first lovely fellow: Heather Hughes.

Look! She’s hard at work already:

Heather got her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Arizona at Tucson, but had fallen out of the writing habit a bit since moving to New York. (New York can do that to a body…) She has just come back to writing in a somewhat roundabout way: As a student in the intensive Conquering Lion Yoga teacher-training program, she has a tremendous amount of reading material and weekly writing assignments.

When she wrote to apply, she said she was having trouble being productive at home, and was really getting worried about the work piling up before her final exams at the end of March. She also said, “In exchange for the use of your office space I can offer yoga classes, encouragement, and occasional entertainment.” Well, that’s hard to argue with!

Some of you reading along might be thinking, “Hey, Zora–you already know Heather! Isn’t this shameless nepotism?”

Yes, Heather’s a friend–we’re both part of the copy editing mafia, and she has lived in Astoria for many years. She has been an excellent dinner guest at our house on countless occasions, and there’s even a photo of her in Forking Fantastic!. Plus, she rocks the Salvation Army racks like no one I know–so I knew she’d be looking smart every time she came over, which might actually encourage me not to wear the same thing every day.

Is it nepotism? I hope not. I genuinely want to open this desk space up to people I don’t know–I’m hoping it’s also a good start to building up a community of writers here. It just happens that Heather has a very pressing deadline and defined work she needs to get out the door right away. After she’s done with this, she’ll make way for other writers who have more ongoing workflow, or projects with deadlines that are farther ahead in 2011.

So a thousand thanks again for everyone who expressed interest–I’ll let you know when the next fellowship opening is, probably in early April. Until then: No more dawdling! Close your browser and get back to work!