Torben Robertson
My writing space is wherever I can put this notebook right now (see above re. moving). I wrote the draft of this interview with the notebook braced on top of the orange AmazonBasics suitcase in the background.
What do you feel is your best piece of work?
Perhaps an unpublished, two-page poem about Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, famous painter and friend of Marie Antoinette. Could be my most successful iambic poem. I read a full biography of the painter in order to write it. It is inspired by Browning’s Fra Lippo Lippi. I have worked on it and have had it edited more than anything else. I think it is my most emotional, most human poem. No doubt it has its faults, not least of them its sincerity, but all things considered is probably my best.
What music have you been listening to lately?
A metal album, Children of Bodom’s Follow the Reaper, which opens with a spoken line from John Donne’s Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud.
Who is the last character you related to?
Austen’s Emma, because she is a mannered, pretentious jerk, who almost loses everything good in life by thinking she can outsmart fate.
Have you ever failed at something you care about?
Every day. The most common failure would be reading hours. I daily fail to reach my three to four hour reading goal.
How much vitamin D do you take?
Not enough. Usually 0 international units per day. My mother, a healthcare professional, recommends I take 5,000 IU daily. My interim goal is to go to Shoppers and buy vitamin D.
Last gift you received?
A shirt that says “New York, New York,”—received while in New York, where I reckon it would be impossible to wear same unironically.
Favourite photo?
Hard question but I’m up to the challenge: Crowd Trying to Enter the Metro Station During the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1992), Alexsey Titarenko.
Best season?
Summer (in the North).
What drives you?
Literature.
Best outfit?
Bathing suit. In a lake. Good for swimming.
Do you like to write in the morning or at night?
I wrote a lot today after not sleeping at all last night. This was kind of a morning-night alloy which I find especially productive.
What do you consider to be your first rejection?
On the playground in grade six, asking out a girl I liked, her saying no.
Where is the best place?
The apartment that I have signed for in Runnymede, which I have yet to move into, but which is the second apartment I will have moved to in two months, the first one having been vacated in an emergency, due to mold. I am placing my hopes and sanity in this forthcoming apartment.
What’s an example of a good ending?
I thought Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Children had a cool ending because tragicomic in the strict sense: it ends with the dismal funeral of one of the protagonists and with the pure wedding of the other.
Latest book you’ve read or favourite book ever?
Latest book: Fleur Jaeggy’s The Water Statues, which I am comfortable recommending without having understood. Ambient af.
Anything you’d like to promote?
My occasional newsletter: commonmeasure.substack.com
Torben Robertson started writing as an adult and therefore must take full responsibility for his mistake. His fiction, poetry, and criticism have appeared in these places. He recently received a haircut and has not had a professional photo done since. If any photographers read this and would like to collab, hit him up.
