Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

France's Dangerously Seductive State of Emergency

State of Emergency Special

The last time a French president declared "l'Etat d'urgence" it was because the banlieues were erupting in violence, with rioters burning  public buildings and thousands of vehicles. That was in 2005, exactly ten years ago, under president Sarkozy.

The rioting had already gone on for nearly two weeks before the State of Emergency and curfew were declared. The specific intent at the time was to put a stop to the violence which was literally out of control.

Today? 

Today we have a State of Emergency declared by President Hollande and signed by Prime Minister Valls, Interior Minister Cazeneuve, and Justice Minister Taubira. It's purpose? Someone should probably ask that question.

Paris Dream vs Reality: A Discussion?

Paris bloggers, travel writers and authors, in the wake of the Paris Attacks, is it not time to revisit the tacit agreement not to say ALL we know about what's happening in France?

After the massacre at the Bataclan, the assault on restaurant goers and football fans, the beheading in the south, the executions of hostages at the Kosher grocery in Vincennes, the massacre at Charlie Hebdo in the heart of Paris, the targeting and torturing to death of a Jewish telephone saleman, the extermination of little Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse, the killing of young solders and much more, isn't it time we shook off the shackles of self-imposed censorship and just told Paris lovers and visitors what we actually see, and know and feel?

About EVERYTHING.

How does it help our readers who dream of Paris to conceal from them problems we know about in France?

A while back there was a discussion about not wanting to ruin people's dreams of Paris by telling them too much.

After the grief, the devastation, the mourning, is it not time for a new honesty among Paris writers?

For the benefit of readers - and writers - alike?

(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images/JTA "People place flowers and candles on the pavement near the scene of the November 13, 2015 Bataclan Theater terrorist attack, on November 14, 2015 in Paris, France. ")

France: French ghettos - like Saint Denis - ten years after the riots: video

To be fifteen in France's ghettos (banlieues).

Excellent discussion of the state of the "banlieues" in France, ten years after the riots that caused France's previous State of Emergency in the winter of 2005.

Calvi's TV show, "C dans l'air" is probably the best discussion forum on French TV. Notice what is said about denial of reality (what's called "angélisme"). About recidivism (it is false that prison causes recividism: "prisons do not cause recidivism; recidivists eventually end up in prison"). About impunity (minors know that they risk nothing "je suis mineur, on ne peut rien contre moi"). About the billions wasted (according to the very official Cour de Comptes). About the drug trade. About the changing population. About increasing violence. And more...(in French). If you blog about France or teach students about France, this is a good video to watch and discuss. 

Broadcast on October 28, 2015 - two weeks before the Paris Attacks,  "Avoir 15 ans dans les banlieues" was watched on TV by 1.7 million people in France.

France: State of Emergency

 

Today France mourns. Tomorrow: questions. 

 

New books, readings, writers workshops and English theatre in Paris

This November, news from Paris writers Peter Gumbel, Chantal Bizzini, Tom Parker, Samantha Chang, David Siefkin, David Downie, Kaaren Kitchell, Jane Augustine, Megan Fernandes, Michael Heller, Nina Zivancevic,  Roger Goldsmith, Marilyn Kallet, Jeanette Winterson, Marilyne Hacker, Paris Lit Up, Moving Parts, Shakespeare and Company, Berkeley Books, the American Library in Paris, Culture Rapide, Spoken Word, WICE, the Irish Cultural Center, Maison de la Poésie, Dear Conjuctions, and more (update ongoing...)

 

 

NEWS:

 

Shakespeare and Company café opens! With tasty pastries and giant glass windows facing the Notre Dame Cathedral, this is the best new coffee place in Paris! And it's right next to the venerable bookstore - bravo!

France announces top literary prizes! Goncourt to Mathias Enard for Boussole! Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française to two books, Les Prépondérants by Héddi Kadour and 2084 by Boualem Sansal!

NANOWRIMO started on Nov 1st. Good luck to all you participating writers! (Curious about what it's like: see Coffee to Float a Book: a Writer Reflects on National Novel Writing Month by Mary Ellen Gallagher)

New PWN author interview of David Downie, author of A Passion for Paris,  by Kaaren Kitchell !

JAILED: Stephan Templ, the Austrian author of the groundbreaking expose "Our Vienna: Aryanization Austrian Style" is still in jail on charges that appear to have been invented just for him by the Austrian authorities. German language newspapers report that the writer was punched in the face and subjected to invasive physical exams in Simmerling, the Austrian prison where he is incarcerated.  Austria has had a lot of trouble digesting its Nazi past - and was even boycotted by the EU for including Jorg Haider's far far right FPO in its government in 2000 -  but this is the first time since 1945 that it's jailed a journalist and Holocaust claimant.Writers, bloggers, journalists, help free Stephan Templ. Contact me for more information.

for news from the Paris literary scene, follow @pariswriters on Twitter

 

LITERARY EVENTS IN PARIS

David Downie On His Passions for Paris

 David Downie, author of A Passion for Paris; Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light, talks with Kaaren Kitchell for Paris Writers News (photos of Paris by Richard Beban)

 

For years, I had been hearing wonderful things about David Downie's books on Paris which have consistently earned high praise from readers and critics alike, and Paris Writers News is most grateful to writer Kaaren Kitchell for this wonderful interview with him for our interview series: Authors on Authors.

---

Kaaren Kitchell: David, I loved this book. But then, I knew I would, since I share your passion for Paris. It is such a skillful interweaving of the last few centuries of Paris history, Romanticism, great stories about writers and artists, and the places where they lived. I just passed Baudelaire’s 1842-43 residence on the Quai de Bethune, and remembered your stories about him. 

Paris Cocktails: 55 bars in six weeks!

Doni Belau, author of the famous Girls Guide to Paris,  has a new book, Paris Cocktails,  and it's  getting rave reviews (see NYT).  Paris Writers News was curious. How does a Paris writer end up getting paid to hit 55 bars in Paris in only six weeks?...    

55 Paris bars in six weeks - researching is not for weak livers

a Paris Writers News guest post,

by

Doni Belau,

author of Paris Cocktails

 

Surviving 55 bars in six weeks in Paris was no mean feat.

October Writing Workshops in Paris

Jailed author Stephan Templ: inventoried Jewish property kept by Austrians

I must apologize to PWN readers. The Paris author/event update will be late this month. Fortunately for Paris Writers, Jen Dick's outstanding Fall Literary Event List is available, and listed below are writing workshops on offer this month.

On  Kafkaesque  charges  defying logic, law and decency in equal measure, Austria has imprisoned  Our Vienna author Stephan Templ.  A change.org petition now exists to demand his freedom.  Writers, bloggers: for more information or to see how you can help, please contact me at pariswritersnews AT gmail.com.

 

LINKS TO WRITING WORKSHOPS IN PARIS

-  NEW! Write-in Paris (WIP) with Sion Dayson:  Communal scribble sessions in a cozy environment. Each weekly meeting offers 2 hours of dedicated writing time + 30 minutes of discussion. A great way to focus on your work in the company of creative people. Daytime WIP: Mondays, 3-5:30 pm. Evening WIP, Thursdays, 7-9:30 pm. Upcoming sessions: 2-week vacances scolaire special (25 euros) and 6-week session starting early November (90 euros). Tea and water provided. Contact Sion Dayson at [email protected] to sign up!

- WICE Creative Writing Classes for all levels and interests:

* The Craft of Memoir Writing with Meg Bortin,

* Paris Vignettes and Travel Blogging with Gary Lee Kraut

* Short Story Writing with Alecia McKenzie

* The Language of Fiction with Dr. Gretel Furner

 - Paris Lit Up Drop in Writing Workshops: Sat 15-17h. see ParisLitUp for details on what to bring and how. (upstairs at L’Autre Café, 62 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud).

 

The Other Writers' Group Drop-in feedback workshop held every Sunday upstairs at Shakespeare & Company (37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005) 6.30pm-8.30pm. We look at the praticalities of how a poem or story works - or doesn't. 6 euros. Bring 10 copies of a poem or of 3-4 pages of prose or just come and listen. More info at http://spokenwordparis.org/the-other-writers-group/

 

- The Paris Writers Group: Weds;  open to all writers and free (please buy  a beverage or food from the host cafe) with John Pope and/or Helen Cusack O’Keeffe.

 

- The Paris Master Class Workshop with Shannon Cain: free, graduate level, by application only. Send about 10 pages of recent writing to [email protected]. 

 

- Writers' Meet-ups in Paris: 

 

- Maxine Rose Schur Children's Book Writing Workshop

 

 

FOLLOW YOUR FAVORITE LITERARY EVENTS ON FACEBOOK

@pariswriters

@shakespeare_co

@amerlibparis

@maisonpoesie1

@cc_canadien 

 

 

Vengeful Austria Jails Whistleblowing Author

 

Stephan Templ is the co-author of Unser Wien a book published in 2001 that documented, with exact addresses, the thousands of properties seized from the Jews in Vienna.  Don't let the smears fool you. This is payback for what he wrote. And intimidation of historians and claimants alike. If you are a journalist or blogger, this is an important story.

For more information see:

Guardian -  Kate Connolly - 

Open Letter to Dr Werner Pleischl General Prokurator

Bloomberg - Peter S Green

Artnews - William D Cohan

NYT - Steven Erlanger "Vienna Skewered as a Nazi-Era Pillager of Its Jews" 

Excerpts in English from Unser Wien, A Topography of a Robbery /A Treasure Map to Nazi Loot in Vienna

Examples of must-visit landmarks owned until Anschluss by Jews, or notable Austrians living in property seized from Jews and never returned - entrees that explain why Templ became such a target for retribution

• Sigmund Freud’s flat
• The Ferris Wheel
• Hotel Imperial
• Franz Vranitzky, Prime Minister
• Adolf Schärf, President of Austria
•  Karl Böhm, conductor
• Franz “Ferry” Dusika

Press Releases

 More Background here

The use of a "fraud" charge as a way of destroying a whistleblower for telling the truth is particularly nasty. This is, unfortunately, not the first time this tactic has been used.  

See our upcoming interview about Hans Deutsch, a German lawyer who was smeared with forgeries, lost all his assets to seizure, and was locked up in solitary confinement - all for helping Holocaust victims reclaim their stolen assets in courts of law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vengeful Austria Jails Whistleblowing Author

What Are Writing Teachers Writing? Works in Progress by the Teachers at WICE

by Dimitri Keramitas, WICE Creative Writing Director

 

Every year, WICE presents a range of writing courses at its rue de Tiphaine offices in the 15th arrondissement. Classes, typically five or six 2-hour sessions, are given in the Fall and Spring. This year the program includes the Language of Fiction, and The Migrant Soul taught by WICE veteran Gretel Furner; the Craft of Memoir-Writing by International Herald Tribune journalist/editor Meg Borton; Shaping the Short Story, by Jamaican-born artist, journalist, and writer Alecia McKenzie, Paris Vignettes II and Paris Travel Blogging by travel writer Gary Lee Kraut (the last class is exceptional in taking place outside the classroom, in selected spots around Paris). The classes are open to all, from the beginner to the already published.