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Because I Am Furniture is a novel in poems. Each poem is its own slice of time in Anke's world, each an extremely short story to make the reader think about something new and question what's next. The poems don't portray long scenes of continuity. They are vignettes, and have to be laid out as a novel in such a way that the story comes together chronologically.
I am a little, um, odd. I am one of the few writers who loves the editing process even a bit more than the writing itself. How lucky for me! Because much of what I write is in poems. And Because I Am Furniture required probably one-fourteenth writing to thirteen-fourteenths editing.
Perhaps I exaggerate.
Perhaps not.
At one point in my third or fourth revision, my spectacularly brilliant editor at Viking, Catherine Frank, strongly suggested I print out each poem and mix them around, trying new combinations of what could go together. There are many ways to put together a pile of poems so that they create a story; I had one already. She wanted me to push harder. So I did this. Printed them all out (at that time a poem fit on one 8 ½ x 11 page), carried them lovingly to a large circular table in the library, selected a slight stack, delicately fanned them out, and with great terror, scrambled them.
"I've ruined my manuscript!" my brain screamed. "I'll never get it back together in any semblance of a novel!"
There is probably still a puddle of sweat in that library chair.
But days of this scrambling passed, and my screams evolved into yelps of surprise as I discovered new connections and better links between poems. I recall emailing my writer's group that I was entrenched, confused that I was hating the process but gripped by a strange euphoria at the same time. In a few weeks I loved what I had created and loved the process of editing a novel in poems. The Great Puzzle.
Thalia Chaltas,
Because I Am Furniture,
Viking Children's,
Penguin Books














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