Come Write In Anywhere! Anna Sander on Making History and Tea

Our Come Write In program has partnered with bookstores and libraries around the world for four years. This November, for the first time, we welcomed community spaces of all kinds to become novel-writing havens. In this year’s final installment of Come Write In Anywhere, intern Steve Genise talks with Oxford’s Balliol College curator Anna Sander about balancing NaNoWriMo with the intensity of school:

Anna, thank you so much for speaking with me! Has Balliol College ever hosted a NaNoWriMo event in the past?

This is the first time Balliol has hosted a NaNo event. We’ve made history! But I decided against inspecting their notebooks to see whether they were writing a novel or tackling a thesis chapter.

Hey, words are words. How do your students deal with the sleeplessness of going to such a prestigious university while participating in NaNoWriMo?

I have no idea how Oxford students manage to do all they do—I wasn’t a student here, and my post isn’t a teaching one. I don’t think they sleep during termtime. At all. It’s a good thing the terms are short and most BA courses are 3 years.

I’m not a big sleeper myself.  Here in America we tend to drink Red Bull to keep us going during NaNo. Is it true that Oxford only allows students to drink tea on campus?

Well, Oxford doesn’t have a campus, but there are plenty of places in town and in the colleges to get tea, coffee, various brands of cold high-caffeine drinks, and all manner of alcohol. The latter is not recommended for staying sharp during revision or novel writing, though! 

Our college library runs Tuesday Tea & Biscuits breaks for stressed-out final-year students leading up to final exams, and in a departure from the usual regulations banning all food and drink, the kettle was definitely on and the biscuit tin open at St. Cross for NaNoWriMo sessions.

Now lastly, and most importantly: who will win the 2014 Boat Race? I’m somewhat of a rower, myself, and I’ve got a lot of money invested. (For our readers who are unaware, the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race is super awesome, and takes place every April)

Since you’re asking someone whose email address ends in .ox.ac.uk, there is only one possible answer: of course Oxford will win the 2014 Boat Race!

I guess we’ll be speaking in April then.  Thank you so much!

Anna Sander is the archivist and manuscript curator at Balliol College, Oxford, has a totally awesome job title, and underestimates the potential of the 2014 Cambridge blue boat.  Read her blog about the Balliol NaNoWriMo adventure here!