Illustration by Jess Ullman
Brooklyn Writers Bloc: For P.E. Moskowitz, it’s ‘always vodka’
Part one of a regular series in which we ask borough writers about what they’ll be reading, drinking and daydreaming this summer
With summer officially upon us, we’ve asked a selection of local writers – across poetry, art, food, fiction, non-fiction, zine making, and party reporting – to bring us into their own private Brooklyns and share what (and where) they’ll be reading, pondering, people watching and daydreaming in the steamy weeks ahead.
It turns out that to the borough’s wordsmiths, summering in Brooklyn can mean anything from eavesdropping on Hinge dates at Domino Park, to delighting in Greenpoint’s petty neighborhood trash and parking space disputes, fantasizing about taking Toni Morrison to Risbo for branzino and wine, or tucking into a Mary Gaitskill, Miguel de Cervantes, or Paule Marshall classic.
For our first installment in a series we’re calling Brooklyn Writers Block, we bring you:
P.E. Moskowitz
P.E. Moskowitz, courtesy Erik Escobar
P.E. Moskowitz is the author of “How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood” (2017) and “The Case Against Free Speech: The First Amendment, Fascism, and the Future of Dissent” (2019) and writer of Mental Hellth Substack.
Describe your writing practice in 10 words or less.
Panic attacks until my body decides it can write.
Favorite spot to journal outside the home?
I find a lot of solace on the Williamsburg Bridge. I like to walk back and forth over it and it gives me good ideas.
Best place to people watch?
I like walking down Bedford Ave. to see all the tourists experiencing the Brooklyn equivalent of Times Square. Like what are they thinking that they’re experiencing? Something real?
Summer drink of choice?
Summer, winter, fall, spring it’s always vodka, as cold as possible, with a little bit of seltzer. Must be my Eastern European blood.
What will you be reading this summer?
Maybe “Don Quixote.”
Favorite reading nook in the wild?
To be honest, I seem to get my best reading done on the bus. Something about being trapped and in motion forces me to focus.
What’s one book you’re ashamed to say you’ve never read?
“Don Quixote” because my friend told me to read it and I said I would, and I haven’t. Sorry, Amber.
Do you go hard for Brooklyn?
I don’t know. This place can be fun and my friends live here but it also sucks and the gentrification is violent and the rents are too high. So I’d say I go more “medium” than “hard” for Brooklyn.
Tip for getting unstuck (in writing and life)?
Go to a field and take a microdose of acid and cry. Repeat until better.
Which writer, living or dead, would you like to tour guide around Brooklyn?
[Joan] Didion of course. She lived in Manhattan but I have a feeling she’d never been to Brooklyn. And I’m sure she’d hate it. Which I would enjoy.
Favorite depiction of Brooklyn in literature, art, film, or other media?
I’m gonna give an annoying answer and say that Brooklyn deserves a video essay like “Los Angeles Plays Itself” by Thom Andersen. It’s probably my fav movie and we haven’t yet had as good and definitive a work about the borough yet.
