Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Fukushima one year later. Have any lessons been learned by French nuclear industry?

Tsunami warnings, written in stones centuries old in Japan 

As bad news and radiation continue to leak from Japan's stricken nuclear reactors and France's European neighbors reject nuclear technology, Sarkozy's government struggles to pretend that nothing's changed.

And yet, the Fukushima tragedy offers five major lessons for us all. (en français)

1) Do not risk something you cannot afford to lose.

Paris Writers News May 2011 Update !

This month, news from The Paris Short Story Contest, Cara Black, James Shapiro, Mary Ellen Gallager, Kai Maristed, Tatiana de Rosnay, David Barnes, Joy Anna Becvarik, Bob Levy, Former US Ambassador Craig Stapleton, Edith Sorel, Mademoiselle London, Paul Harding, Amy Hollowell, Pansy Maurer-Alvarez, Robert Hershon, Jack Hirschman, Gary Lee Kraut, Paul Murray, Katherine Mosby, Jennifer K Dick, Greg Santos and George Vance

Can I say it involves a bearded dialysis patient? Jon Stewart jokes about events in Abbottabad

Attention: This video is not suitable for conspiracy theory nuts.

The Daily Show - Big Deady
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart on the good news for "human people".

"I suppose I should be expressing ambivalence about the killing of another human being, but...nope..."

- Jon Stewart

"Turns out the son of a bitch was living in the SUBURBS ! " - Aasif Mandvi

"Abbottabad has a golf course!" 

 

 

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE : Paul Schmidtberger, author of Design Flaws of the Human Condition

This personality questionnaire originating in an English-language confession album caught Marcel Proust’s fancy in his teens.  This week, Anne Marsella questions Paul Schmidtberger, author of Design Flaws of the Human Condition.

"Four years ago I had the pleasure of inviting lawyer-turned-novelist  Paul Schmidtberger to be a guest speaker at NYU’s Writers in Paris reading series.   His novel, Design Flaws of the Human Condition, lives up to the publisher’s puff.  It really is riotously funny and I’m hoping he’ll come out with another glorious comedy of manners -- set in the City of Lights.  

In between working on just that book perhaps and doing the afternoon shift at The Red Wheelbarrow, Paul set aside a moment to answer the Proust Questionnaire.  Merci, cher Paul!"

Interview with Cara Black, author of MURDER IN PASSY, an Aimée Leduc mystery

 Authors on Authors

  

This week,  Christopher Vanier, author of Caribbean Chemistry, talks with Paris murder mystery expert Cara Black, author of the immensely popular Aimée Leduc murder mystery series set in Paris. Cara is currently on a book tour for MURDER IN PASSY.     

  

 a Paris Writers News author interview

 

Chris Vanier: To start the ball rolling, Cara, why does a Californian resident like yourself write stories set in Paris? 

 

Cara Black: Paris intrigues me, Chris. But you know Benjamin Franklin said ‘all Americans have two countries, one of them is France.’ I grew up near San Francisco with a Francophile father who loved good food and wine. He sent me to a French Catholic school with nuns who taught us archaic French and gave us summer subscriptions to ELLE magazine. Even now people show surprise at my arcane knowledge of Florence Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve’s sister who died young and the first affair between Mireille Darc and Alain Delon.

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE : Heather Hartley, author of Knock Knock

Paris writer Anne Marsella, author of The Baby of Belleville, Remedy, Patsy Boone and The Lost and Found and Other Stories, had the excellent idea of asking Paris-based writers to answer the  Proust Questionnaires. 

Succinct, personal and slightly whimsical, these interviews offer a glimpse into the personality and work of writers who have made Paris their home. This week, Anne administers the Proust Questionnaire to Heather Hartley.

"If you go to the Monday night readings at Shakespeare and Co. chances are you've seen poet Heather Hartley on stage, both reading her work and presenting other writers.  Heather is the author of KNOCK KNOCK, a highly praised poetry collection and finalist in the National Poetry Series.  Curator of Shakespeare and Co.'s reading series and Paris editor of Tin House, Heather's generous and vibrant presence in Paris' literary scene make her the perfect candidate for the Proust Questionnaire!"

 

Paris Writers News April Update 2 (April 18 - 30, 2011)

This week, news from Paris Writers Alexis Niki, L'Inébranlable, Katy Masuga, Anne Marsella, Gallimard, Cara Black, Jamie Cat Callan, Carolyn Burke, Jennifer Butler, Gary Lee Kraut, Constance Borde, Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, David Lebovitz, Leslie Dunton-Downer,  Stephen Clarke,  and Writers Meet-ups in Paris. 

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE Janet Skeslien Charles, author of Moonlight in Odessa

Succinct, personal and slightly whimsical, the Proust Questionnaire offers a glimpse into the personality and work of writers who have made Paris their home.

To start off the series, Anne Marsella interviewed novelist Janet Skeslien Charles.

"I had the pleasure of meeting on a panel at a literary festival in Fontainebleau this fall, hosted by Sue and Judy at Reel Books.  Janet’s widely acclaimed novel Moonlight in Odessa recounts the story of a mail-order bride with compassion, humour, and remarkable accuracy.  I was instantly taken with Janet’s openness and generosity.  Currently the Programs Manager of The American Library, Janet facilitates exchanges between writers and the reading public.  She also teaches creative writing at Skidmore College in Paris."

The Proust Questionnaires with Anne Marsella, for Paris Writers News !

Paris writer Anne Marsella, author of The Baby of Belleville, Remedy, Patsy Boone and The Lost and Found and Other Stories, had the excellent idea of asking Paris-based writers to answer the  Proust Questionnaires. 

Succinct, personal and slightly whimsical, these interviews offer a glimpse into the personality and work of writers who have made Paris their home. 

What is the Proust Questionnaire ? Anne Marsella explains:

This personality questionnaire originating in an English-language confession album caught Marcel Proust’s fancy in his teens.  He enthusiastically answered the questionnaire several times at different periods of his life and was responsible for popularizing the format to which his name has since been wedded.   He believed the interview revealed something of an individual’s true nature and when answering it displayed just how deep his own literary layers lay:

 What do you appreciate most in your friends?

Proust:  To have tenderness for me, if their personage is exquisite enough to render quite high the price of their tenderness.”  

He could also be uncharacteristically succinct:

What are your favorite qualities in a man?

Proust: Feminine charms.

What are your favorite qualities in a woman? 

Proust: Manly virtues, and frankness in friendship.   

Clearly Proust was having good fun with the questionnaire.  Because this exercise in personality probing seeks above all to entertain  -- both interviewee and reader -- it remains popular today.  Vanity Fair’s back page has made prolific use of it, interviewing celebrities from all walks of the arts.   

In this spirit, I’ve asked several fellow writers based in Paris to answer it for Paris Writers News.

Watch for upcoming Proust Questionnaires with Heather Hartley, Paul Schmidtberger, Helen Schulman, Janet Skeslien Charles and more!!!

 

Anne Marsella has been living in Paris for some twenty years.  She is the author of four books: The Baby of Belleville, Remedy, Patsy Boone and The Lost and Found and Other Stories.   Her work has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies both in the US and in France. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize nomination, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award (New York University Press) and several residency fellowships.  Her novel, Patsy Boone, was written directly in French and published by Editions de la Différence.  Having taught literature and creative writing at the American University of Paris and associate directed New York University’s Writers in Paris program, she currently directs the Wells College Arts in Paris program.

 

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Paris Writers News talks with Gary Lee Kraut about travel writing, submissions, and revisiting France

 

Authors on Authors

This week Laurel Zuckerman talks with Gary Lee Kraut, writer, blogger, editer--and  intrepid biker about Paris.