Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

pwn to announce short story competition at the paris writers workshop

 Writers get your pens!

Paris Writers News is launching its first contest for the Best and Most Delightful Stories about Paris

 

Twelve stories will be selected for publication in a collection of short stories about Paris.

Love, hate, expectation, desire, dreams, discovery and disappointment in the world’s most beautiful city. All themes, periods and approaches will be considered.  

What we’re looking for: a great story, well-told. Humor, wit and luminous prose, please apply!

PARIS WRITERS NEWS SHORT STORY CONTEST

Genre: Short fiction (with some link to Paris)
Closing date: 30 November 2010
Prize: 200 euros for first prize, plus publication of twelve best stories
Entry fee: 10 euros
Restrictions: Maximum 5’000 words. Submission in the body of the email only
Further information: 12 stories will be selected to appear in the book: “BEST AND MOST DELIGHTFUL STORIES ABOUT PARIS” to be published fall 2011

We have just announced the judges at :

http://www.laurelzuckerman.com/2010/08/judges-announced-for-pwn-short-story-contest-about-paris.html

 And the American Library in Paris has published FAQs about the contest at:

http://americanlibraryinparis.org/blog/2010/08/new-short-story-contest-announced/

After a preselection by the Editorial Committee, twelve distinguished judges from the literary community will each select one story for publication.

The Best and Most Delightful Stories about Paris will be published in paperback, e-book and POD in the fall of 2011.writers, contest, short story contest, Paris, creative writing

More details will be announced  in this space.

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To submit your short story, please send your text IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL (no attachments, no links) to  : pariswritersnews  AT  gmail  DOT  com

We accept payment through Paypal

(click on "ajouter au panier" which means "add to basket" )

What I love about Paris ! a dialogue with author Elizabeth Bard

Elizabeth and I talk about how we try to combine the best of French and American culture in our lives, marriages, experiences of parenthood – and of course, food!  (Elizabeth is the author of Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes) 

 Now I'm not one usually quick to praise (as readers of Sorbonne Confidential know), so the question posed a a bit of a challenge. To get the ball rolling, Elizabeth and I decided to meet and share ideas : 

What's to love about Paris?

 

EB: Food for pleasure, not fuel: I love the idea that a French meal is something to be planned for days, lingered over for hours, and talked about forever. I love that fresh ingredients make it simple to cook great food. I love that people don’t eat in their cars, or on the street, or at their desks. I love that meals are still the central thread in the social fabric of France.

LZ: Food, of course the food! I love the ritual of preparation, the anticipation, the effortless culinary skill of friends and neighbors, the civilized pleasure of eating, drinking and talking together—the banishment of vulgar talk of carbs and proteins. I am eternally grateful to France  that my daughter at 12 can prepare a beautiful three course meal.

EB: Weekend is not a dirty word: It’s no exaggeration to say that the French are always going on, returning from, or planning their next vacation. Time off is sacred to them, and although my husband and I work a lot, balance is essential – in the end, I think it makes us more productive…

 

LZ: I walk everywhere. My children walk everywhere. We don’t have a car, don’t NEED a car.  And when we walk, it’s side by side, not Mom the Chauffeur in front shuttling from one appointment to another. We can talk, admire the sights, breathe the air (ok not always a plus).  Kids can run to the store by themselves to pick up milk or eggs. It feels right.

EB: Don’t join a gym, take a walk: As a girl who thinks sweating should be reserved for vigorous sex – I’m totally in line with the French idea of exercise. Take a walk, drag the groceries up six flights of stairs, don’t eat till your pants split. Common sense that seems to keep French women slim without a stairmaster.

LZ:  Having babies. Giving birth  is scary enough, and it’s a relief not to have to worry about the cost. Also, your job is protected and you get  three months off, paid—and the possibility of a leave of absence.  

EB: My husband’s three week paternity leave: Never mind that I spent six days in the hospital FREE of charge. I’ll say that again – six days of hospital care, midwifes, and doctors FREE of charge. Not only were my bump and I graciously waived to the front of the line at the supermarket, taxi stand, airline check etc.  New French daddy’s have three weeks with their partners and newborns; It was such a special bonding time for us as a new family – we got our feet wet, could share sleep shifts, and take baby Augustin for his first café crème.

LZ: Ecole maternelle is excellent. While finding a nanny or a crèche can be difficult, from age three all children can attend école maternelle, which is free, well organized and generally staffed with kind and well trained teachers. It’s the best part of Education Nationale.

EB: If I lived in the States right now, I’d turn into a cupcake: I’m finding it harder and harder to make good food choices when I’m back in the US with my family. My mother’s fridge is lined with a wall of condiments, and there’s a cupcake (or a muffin, or a scone) at every turn. Why, every time I see a newsstand, do I crave Dots and Twizzlers? I struggle with the enormous portions, if it’s there – of course we’ll eat it…

Tomorrow: some of the NOT BEST things about Paris

 

All this is part of the WHSmith reading series around the launch of Sex in the City 2 –come continue the discussion with us over a drink!  4 June 5-7  pm Café Etienne Marcel, 32 rue Etienne Marcel 75002

 

Germany wins Eurovision -- thanks to LOVE !

 How to write a winning lyric for Europe's great songfest?

In an article posted BEFORE the Eurovision contest, BBC news correspondant Marc Savage seriously analyzed words used in successful songs.

His conclusion: 

The answer is "love".

"Love" accounts for an impressive 2% - or one in 50 - of the 12,299 words that have been sung from the winner's podium (discounting common words like "I" or "and").

And, in a prediction that turned bookmakers green with envy, he said:

Based on that alone, Germany has a good chance of taking away the 2010 trophy. Their song, Satellite, features the highest incidence of the word - repeating it 26 times, accounting for 7% of the lyrics.

Sure enough, the German contestant, warbling in English about love (26 times!) won the 2010 Eurovision contest!

Bravo for art! 

(Personally my favorite was Belarus' butterfly act. Had to see it to believe it! A well-deserved 31st place out of 32, but fabulous...See full results here.)

In other news, the German Bundesbank accused France of a "French plot" : the European Central Bank (run by a Frenchman) is buying up bad Greek debt in order to slurp up some of the $51 billion dollars Greece owes to French banks.

All you need is love!

Eurovision tonight! Expats, don't miss the ultimate European experience!

 Boil the water! Heat up the sauce! Uncork the red!

It's EUROVISION NIGHT!

For those of you who've never seen it, you have a treat in store. The King of Kitch, the Summit of Silly, the Pinnacle of Please, No More!

The costumes alone are worth the earstrain.

And for more serious expat types, this is your real chance to understand Europe. Watch Albania go toe to toe with France, and Germany crush (or be crushed by) Norway. Where else can Turkey and Greece and Cyprus all play together nicely?  Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia " Herzogovina. Russia and Lithuania.

The lion shall lie down and sing with the lamb. Wearing sparkles. And clingy dresses.

And, more often than not, harmonizing in the one language they all understand: English.

It is a moment not to be missed. Tonight. FR3. At 9 pm.

Here's a lovely video of some past winners (singing in their native languages)

Here's the 2008 winner from Russia. Enjoy !!

Extreme home detox ? For heavens sake, just stop cleaning! And drop the cell!

 

This is a photo of me cleaning the house.

Bleach. Mr. Clean (Monsieur Propre). Aerosols. Sprays. Washes, Waxes. Treatments, Scrubs. Detergeants. Disinfectants. Air perfumes. Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-rodent, anti-insect.

Not all of this is as good for the human organism as you might think!

Before you run out and hire a professional, ask yourself a simple question: Are you cleaning yourself to death?

Some scientists blame the rise of allergies on insufficient exposure to dirt as children. What if it's not too little dirt, but too much industrial strength cleanser?

This serious article from the NYT (from which I borrowed the great photo) lists  items in your home that might be poisoning you, such as new technologies, foods and chemicals.

For $375 a building biology consultant will come to your home and scare the toxins right out of you.

Possible contaminants include:

• chemicals
• plastics
• cleaners
• electromagnetic waves
• cell phones
• cordless phones
• dimmers
• wireless internet
• microwaves
• water
• artificial fragrances
• and more.

Many people (including beloved family members) think I'm a nutt for refusing to own a microwave, a cordless phone, or, until very recently Wifi, but listen to Penelope Green, author of Detoxifying the Home: Extreme Cleaning,

 

"We impose a hierarchy on our anxieties — otherwise our heads would explode. Prioritizing keeps us sane. Mr. Waletzke’s prescriptions, contained in the eight-page report he e-mailed me a few days after his visit, ranged from the simple and relatively inexpensive — replacing bleach with vinegar, for example — to pricier and more complex solutions, like water filters and electromagnetic radiation shielding devices.  

A few recommendations:

 

MOISTURE Fix the dryer vent and re-grout the tiles in the shower.

AIR Despite my location on Second Avenue, Mr. Waletzke wrote that “outdoor air is surprisingly half as toxic as indoor air.” He recommended cleaning the air-conditioner’s filters, keeping the windows open and buying a HEPA air filter to use in the bedroom when the windows are closed. He likes Aquasana products, like the Deluxe Air Purifier, which is about $600 at aquasanaforlife.com. However, it won’t win any beauty contests.

WATER Noting the New York City water, like most municipal water, has been treated with chlorine and fluoride, possible carcinogens, Mr. Waletzke recommended getting a kitchen-sink water filter (an under-counter model is about $144 at aquasanaforlife.com) and a shower filter (about $68 at aquasanaforlife.com). But suggested that if I had to prioritize, I should pick the shower. He also advised cleaning the shower head with vinegar and water, since mold can grow there.

ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION The most effective shield, Mr. Waletzke said, is carbon-based paint. It is black, and extremely expensive — $409 for five liters atlessemf.com. Shielding fabric is somewhat cheaper; a silver-plated nylon mesh canopy is about $1,000 at lessemf.com and has an appealing Karen Blixen vibe.

COSMETICS AND CLEANING SUPPLIES Jettison the bleach and the conventional cleaning solutions, he said, and replace them with Green Seal products, or use vinegar. He recommended vetting my cosmetics at cosmeticsdatabase.com, which lists which carcinogens are in which products. I lost heart at my toothpaste.

 

As for the cellphone, the problem is almost too big to worry about. Here's  

Louis Slesin, a Manhattan industry watchdog who has been reporting on electromagnetic radiation for three decades in his publication, Microwave News. (Quoted by Penelope Green)

  

 

“You have four billion people using cellphones and we’re living next to towers,” Mr. Slesin said, “and as more than one person has said, this is the world’s largest biological experiment. You are an electrical being. You wouldn’t have a thought in your head or move your fingers without an electrical impulse. The idea that any of these external fields have no influence on you seems to me preposterous.”

"Cellphones are thousands of times stronger, and you’re sticking them right on your head,” he said. “Worrying about towers is like worrying about passive smoking when you haven’t yet addressed smoking itself.”

Dmitri Keramitas talks with Paul Schmidtberger about new technologies and fear in publishing, for Paris Writers News

Authors interview Authors:

 

This month, Dmitri Keramitas talks with Paul Schmidtberger about writing, electronic media and fear in publishing.

 

 Paul Schmidtberger is the author of Design Flaws of the Human Condition, an urban comedy of adultry published by Random House in 2007, an "assuredly entertaining romp" whose characters are handled  "with a sympathetic grace" (Publishers Weekly). He has lived in Paris for twelve years. Schmidtberger was a practicing lawyer specialized in intellectual property and international arbitration, but now writes full time. He has written articles for numerous US publications, including the New York Times, and is working on a new novel.

  

 Dmitri Keramitas was educated at the University  of Hartford, Sorbonne, and the University  of London, and holds degrees in literature and law. He lives in Paris, teaching English and law in the French university system. His short fiction has been published in numerous literary journals. 

  

DK :  I’d like to speak about the role of the new media in books, both writing and publishing them.

 

PS: Well, I’m about the most un-high tech person imaginable. I don’t like technology, and technology doesn’t like me.

  

 Do you have a web site?

 

  

I have a web site.  Given how inept I am with anything hi-tech, it's a small miracle, but the site is up and running smoothly.

 

  

What place does electronic media have in marketing books?

 

  

All publishers now strongly encourage their writers to put up a site. My site just has some information about myself, the novel, a few snippets from the novel. Also photos. It’s pretty basic. But when I recently wrote an article for the New York Times, there was a link to my site, and I can tell you my stats jumped considerably.

  

You don't put the first chapter in your site?

 

  

No, I don’t. Actually Amazon does that, and I don’t really appreciate it. It’s more or less appropriating a work without the author’s permission. Google is another example of that.

 

 

Did you or your publisher pay for your site?

  

I did. With very few exceptions, the publisher won’t pay for it. Much of the marketing burden these days has been outsourced from the publisher to the writer.

 

  

A friend whose memoir was published by a university press had to go to a private firm to have the editing done.

 

  

That’s more and more frequent.

  

Is it just more convenient, or a question of economics?

  

So many publishers are now part of corporations, which are in turn part of multinational groups. I don’t think this makes for a good mix. My first novel was published by Broadway, an imprint of Random House. It used to be an independent publisher. Random House itself is now part of Bertelsmann. When there was a corporate restructuring, Broadway disappeared. I lost my entire imprint, and worse, my editor left at about the same time. It’s all about cutting costs …

  

What do you think of the recent case involving the William Styron estate? The family demanded all  e-book rights to Styron’s work. Though the courts didn’t make a final decision, Random House gave in.

  

The publishers weren’t very happy. A very prominent editor at Random House wrote a long defense of the house, saying that they should have been compensated for the work they put in developing William Styron.

  

 Do you agree?

  

In the case of Random and Styron, yes. Apparently they did put in a lot of time and effort shaping his work. But nowadays, publishers don’t necessarily nurture writers the way they might have in the past.  These days, the writer is often left to fend for himself.

  

Are you bothered by the idea of people reading your novels in the form of an e-book?

  

Not in the least. I don’t read e-books. But I have friends I respect who swear by them.

  

They certainly save space.

  

Yes, some of my friends went on holiday with a machine containing a dozen books, while I found myself with one single, very long, boring book.

  

There are predictions of e-books that will become network phenomena, filled with links, and video interludes, etc.

  

That is definitely going to happen. The problem is that a novel is a work of art—it’s my work of art—and I wouldn’t want my work being made part of things I don’t approve of. This isn’t anything new. The Mona Lisa is part of a huge number of other things, both good and trashy. It’s bad enough getting spam about Viagra, I don’t want a link from my novel to a Viagra ad!

  

Of course, if your novel deals in Viagra in some way, a link could lead to a definition, and on-line forum …

  

 Okay, that’s different.

  

If you were offered an ad from Viagra or some other product for a link in your novel, would you accept or refuse?

  

My first instinct is to say I’d refuse—I’d like to think so. But actually, I don’t know. It really depends on the context. Of course, product placement is already widespread in the movies.

  

IT technology can erase the brand of whisky Bogart is drinking and insert a contemporary one sponsoring the film.

  

I wouldn’t be surprised. It can also create problems. The editor of my last novel suggested that I delete a reference to United Airlines in a joke a character tells.

  

They were afraid of lawsuits?

  

As a lawyer I can tell you I was within legal bounds, but they just wanted to avoid courting trouble, which makes a lot of sense.

  

What do you think of audio-books?

  

They’re great. My father used to drive fifty miles to work. He loved borrowing them from the library and listening to them.

  

I have a friend who listens to audio-book novels while doing housework, ironing …

  

 Personally I wouldn’t be able to concentrate enough on what I was listening to!

  

Have you considered adapting the form of your fiction to the new media?

  

You mean like including e-mails and text messages? I prefer that kind of thing when other writers do it. Some writers can be very funny that way.  Having spent a significant part of my adult life in a law firm, I love books that skewer corporate culture with fake emails, memos, power-point presentations etc.

  

And the recent trend towards blog novels?

  

I find they’re better as blogs than as novels. Though I did find one blog, written by a woman in Texas, to be hilarious, and wrote to tell her she should write fiction. But it seems the blog and the novel are two different things. The novel is about getting the reader into a story, while most blogs are about exhibitionism and voyeurism.

  

Is social networking becoming important? Are you in Facebook?

  

Yes, I’m in Facebook. Not LinkedIn or Twitter. I go onto it about once a day, or every couple of days, and write a little note from Paris. The publishers say that a Facebook presence is important for marketing. You have to make it personal, which results in a loss of some privacy. Actually, I prefer writing which is kind of anonymous. The emphasis on personality can put too much stress on a person’s looks, for example. If you’re a good-looking writer, you can be sure the entire back cover will be a photo. That can ultimately lead to the idea that certain types of people have the right to write about certain things, and I just don’t believe that.

  

You’ve been writing articles recently. Has the use of e-mails, file-sharing, etc. made the pace of the business of writing faster?

  

A lot of my contacts with publications are by e-mail, but many still require queries by the post. So I can’t say my pace has been especially quickened.

  

I do most of my book-shopping on Amazon. Everything is available there. Do you consider that an advantage for the author?

  

For me, nothing can replace an old-fashioned bookstore. The customer can see the books, leaf through them, smell them. The writer can speak to customers, and to the book-dealers.

  

Amazon also makes possible the selling of used and remainder books. The re-selling market has become gigantic. I’m currently reading Don DeLillo’s Underworld, a very fat novel that was delivered in pristine condition, and it cost me 18 cents.

  

Eighteen cents? If it were a book I’d written, I’d rather the owner just lend it to another reader for free rather than see it sold for eighteen cents.

  

It does make it possible for more people to read your books.

  

If writers don’t make money from their books, they’re simply going to stop writing them. In the same way that if musicians don’t get paid for their music they won’t make music.

  

Print-on-demand technology has made alternative types of publication more feasible.

  

There’s the Year in the Merde phenomenon. That was self-published and became a huge best-seller—in England in particular.

  

The “Englishman in France ” is a British niche genre, going back to A Year in Provençe.

 

Right. The self-publishing model can work in a few special cases. I’m not judging it at all. But I think the majority of books risk getting lost in the shuffle. They’ll just be published in name only.

 

Do you think the way the new media has affected the capacities of younger people is impacting writing and publishing?

 

Well, publishers definitely want short books. Two hundred pages … three hundred gets to be long. There’s the idea that readers have shorter attention spans.

 

Yet my own children like long fantasy novels, and series …

 

Twilight, and the Harry Potter books. Of course, JK Rawling was rejected by an awful lot of publishers!

 

What do you think of the kind of people who work in publishing?

 

I think they’re incredibly intelligent, sophisticated, well-read people. They’re more intelligent than the average person who works in most businesses. Of course, the same was true of the people who worked in the financial sector.

 

What’s the main problem in publishing then?

 

They’re afraid, in some respects. Their jobs are always on the line, so every book has to be profitable, if not a blockbuster. Or else they want something already proven successful … teenaged vampires or some such. They say they want the “fresh” and “new” but then they ask for teenaged vampires. What’s fresh and new about teenaged vampires?

 

They’re behind the curve, instead of ahead of it?

 

Behind the curve, yes, definitely.  I wish there were a way to tell the people in publishing to trust their own judgment.  To forget about corporate oversight and go with their gut feelings.  But that's a hard thing to ask someone to do when they've got to pay their rent, just like anybody else.  Especially when corporate parent companies are looking to cut costs.

To order Design Flaws of the Human Condition.

 

 

Sex and the City Paris author events May 27- June 8 !

 What do Carrie Bradshaw, Mireille Guiliano, David Lebovitz, Alec Lobrano, Heather Stimmler-Hall, Vanina Marsot, Dana Thomas, Laurel Zuckerman, Elizabeth Bard, and Jamie Cat Callan have in common?

(No, it's not the shoes.) 

 They're all writers who love Paris!

As part of the Sex and the City 2 launch extravaganza, WH Smith has organized what just may be the most amusing Paris literary event of the season :  

MANHATTAN DÉBARQUE À PARIS !

SIX EVENINGS WITH PARIS AUTHORS

with themes in honor of  

Sex in the City 2 

At the Café Etienne Marcel 

32 rue Etienne Marcel Paris 75002

Thursday 27 May 17h à 19h : Mireille Guiliano

 Friday 28 May 17h à 19h : David Lebovitz, Alec Lobrano, Heather Stimmler-Hall

 Sunday 30 May 17h à 19h : Vanina Marsot

 Thursday  3 June  17h à 19h : Dana Thomas

 Friday 4 June 17h à 19h : Laurel Zuckerman,  Elizabeth Bard

 Sunday 6 June  17h à 19h : Jamie Cat Callan

For more info see WH Smith site!.

And to register for other fun events planned for the Sex and the City 2 launch, see http://www/sexandthecity2-leclub.com

French audit slams National Education System for worsening inequalities and producing failure--at massive cost

 Two years of audits and visits to 60 schools in six academies. 

Conclusion? 

Despite massive spending, the French national education system "worsens inequalities and causes too much failure".

Harsh, indeed. And yet, for anyone with children in the system, is it really a surprise?

The 200 page report from the Cours de Comptes concludes that change is imperative.

Instead of supply (class hours, teachers, budget), says the report, budgets should be based on demand (students' precise knowledge needs).  In the original French:  

"Il est désormais impératif de remplacer la logique de l'offre scolaire – qui repose sur des moyens alloués en fonction des programmes : tant d'heures de cours, qui signifient tant d'enseignants, qui signifient tel budget –, par une logique fondée sur la demande, c'est-à-dire sur une connaissance nettement plus précise des besoins des élèves".

The report goes on to list 13 proposals, including:

• Put an end to "uniform budget allocation" which hurts schools which need extra help
• Reduce the number of children held back
• Abandon the ideology of heterogenous classes 
• Change the orientation system, today entirely failure based
• Give more decision power concerning resource allocation to individual schools

All good suggestions. Will anyone in power have the courage to implement?

Nicola Keegan talks with PWN about her stunning debut novel SWIMMING

Authors interview Authors:

 

In this new segment, writers talk about their work with other writers.

This month, Laurel Zuckerman talks with Nicola Keegan about poetry, snow, laughing at death and and her acclaimed debut novel, Swimming.

Nicola will be at WH Smith on June 17 at 7 pm

 

LZ  In reading Swimming I was struck by the narrator’s powerful and unique voice. Judy Bloom said “It’s the most original novel I’ve read all year. I can’t get Pip’s voice out of my mind.” Where does PIP’s voice come from?

NK  Writing is not living but sometimes living annoys me so deeply, I pretend writing is living which injects a certain type of energy into my work because everything becomes essential, necessary, important, and real.

LZ  You claim that you started to write “bad poetry” because you couldn’t find a writers group in Paris that would take you and finally ended up with a bunch of poets. One of the most remarkable things about Swimming is the language, which I have to suspect is influenced by your intense exposure to poets and poetry. What is the relation between prose and poetry in your writing? Should we all hang out with poets?

NK  People talk about that a lot; prose and poetry, poetry and prose. I don’t know what the relationship is honestly—perhaps how you hear the words in your head and hanging around with poets does affect the way one hears. It affected me anyway. Poets help you listen which makes you think which makes you pay attention which helps you see—so yes, we should all hang out with them…but something tells me they have other things they’d rather be doing. On another note, I didn’t think anyone like Alice Notley existed until I actually met her so that was a surprise. I think poets should have their own special house and they shouldn't have to pay for anything and they should be revered and taken care of and read they should be read. They are the opposite of what is wrong with the world right now.

LZ  James Joyce’s The Dead is one of your favorite works. Why?

NK The snow. I must have been about 18 years old. I was reading in bed. Christmas had just passed and I had a couple of days before going back to school. It was late, way after midnight and I kept reading although I was tired. My bedroom had a long rectangular window that overlooked an empty swimming pool and the dense forest beyond. I was reading smoothly, you know when you read with interest but a certain sense of detachment--like that. The story took over my senses in a wave felt even more intently due to the silence of the house, the insulation of winter, the visibility of the sky, sharp winter stars, a low moon. I had a physical reaction; my heart beat faster and my mind quickened, I looked out the window--the snow was falling slowly, I went back to the story, the dinner table was breaking up, the wife was weeping, the husband was realizing something about the human heart. Both worlds, the real one, my pillow, the central heating purring in the background, and the James Joyce world sort of muted together. Falling gently gently falling. It was the first moment in my life I felt consciously connected to the whole of the human race. I think of James Joyce often, whenever I see a tall thin man, whenever light flashes off someone's spectacles, whenever it snows, when I'm in Ireland. Sometimes I write what he wrote just to see what it feels like.

LZ  The humor in Swimming is little short of ferocious. God, death, sibling love and hatred, priests and even nuns—nothing is spared. Is there any subject we can’t laugh at?

NK  Oh there are subjects I cannot laugh at, but you have to admit being human is often funny. And the Irish are the WORST by the way. Poor old Michael Jackson's body wasn't even cool yet and the jokes were flying. Horrible awful jokes; something about turning his body into legos so children could play with him for once. See? Awful stuff. Does that mean that they don't give a damn about poor old M. Jackson. No, they care. When they finished laughing they said “poor old sod.” Humor is just a way of dealing with things, a form of decompression and an expression of the meaningless misery and ridiculousness of being human. It often gets misinterpreted as a type of hardness, but it’s the contrary. I once sat on the steps outside a funeral and laughed myself into cramps. I couldn't go in. It was horrible. How many terrible moments of high drama did I catch my sister's eye and just lose it. More than I can count. I know it's awful. A curse. Very black etc. But I just cannot help it.

LZ  Why an Olympic swimmer? What is it about high level sport that attracted you?

NK  An elite athlete begins as a child who loves something and I think that kind of love is good. I’ve always admired people who try really hard and swimmers try really hard every day for years and years and years. When I started to study water I loved the language that scientists used to describe it. There’s a lot of water in SWIMMING in all its forms; it rains for months, it snows in spirals, people sprout like fountains, feelings evaporate. I like the fact that in water people are unburdened by gravity. I like the image of swimmers flinging themselves into water and pulling as hard as they can. I like the idea of beating the clock, being your own principal adversary, human velocity. And there is a solitary lonesomeness about spending so many hours in an element in which you cannot breathe that I found deliciously melancholic. I love female locker room talk, any sort of ridiculous chatter about body parts, the fact that success is a temporary flame. Also, and I might as well admit it--when I started studying swimmers, I grew very attached to them, and when I continued to follow them, I fell in love. That's what happens I guess.

LZ  An admirer of yours told me that, in early drafts, you wrote “like an animal”. How did you manage to channel this intensity into story? By what process did you make your themes, which are rooted in profoundly personal events, comprehensible to the reader?

NK  Yipes—the Big Questions. Yes, I wrote like an animal. The intensity is there naturally so I didn't have to conjure it--it just sort of channeled itself into the work. I had some hard knocks while I was writing this novel and it is at these moments that one must decide what is important. It’s easy to have a good philosophy when things are fine, but when you get your mettle tested and things are a mess, it’s a bit more problematic. I had to choose. Writing anchored me—I felt like giving my best. That's the job of a writer I think--to make deeply personal feelings accessible to people. If they are incomprehensible then I'm not doing my job. I spent a lot of my life being incomprehensible, even to myself, so I know. Actually, when you meet someone one-on-one and talk to them, you can make anything comprehensible—even your most craziest story because bottom line; we are all human and understand human things so I talk to people. And I listen. And, not to sound like a dork, I care, so empathy seems a prerequisite.

LZ  What role did your agent play in your writing?

NK  My agent, Bill Clegg, is the first person who connected to my creative mind in a way I'd always wished for. He sort of obliterated this intellectual loneliness that one can accidentally find themselves locked in. The mind is a vast complicated affair that to find someone with whom you can work in such an effortless funny respectful loving way, honestly, is the biggest gift this whole process has brought me. I love working with him.

LZ  You have a husband, three beautiful children and are president of the PTA. Isn’t this enough? Why write?

NK  I don't think writing is about getting or having--I think writing is about giving essentially and I don't know what you mean about enough. The time I spend with my children has to be about who I am as a person and who I am as a person is all about what I do with my time (sorry that seems like a riddle.) I don't want to live in this world, eat ice cream, drink a couple of beers, admire the beauty and grace of my children, fight with my husband, battle with existentialism—lose, grow old, get saggy boobs, complain, then pop off and die toodle do. I want to try to give something back. That’s exceedingly important to me.

Don't miss! May 15 free night visits in Paris museums !

Tonight, visit your favorite museum or discover someplace new !

In Paris 75 museums offer 150 events, ranging from guided tours to artistic creation!

Here are listings for arrondissements 1-5  (for complete listing see Le Figaro)

Paris 1er

LES ARTS DÉCORATIFS. 107 rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris 1er - France. Téléphone 01 44 55 57 50

Les Arts décoratifs ouvrent leurs portes : visites libres et guidées (18:00 - 00:00)

 

MUSÉE DU LOUVRE. 34 quai du Louvre 75058 Paris 1er - France. Téléphone 01 40 20 50 50

Visite libre du musée (20.30 - 23.30 )

 

MUSÉE EN HERBE. 21 rue Hérold 75001 Paris 1er - France.Téléphone 0140679766

Visite du musée (19.00 - 22.00)

 

MUSÉE NATIONAL DE L'ORANGERIE. Jardin des Tuileries 75001 Paris 1er - France.Téléphone 01 44 50 43 00

Visite libre (19:00 - 00:45) Spectacle. Mime et poésie (19:00 - 00:00) Vidéo et concert (19:00 - 00:40 -Cycle d'art vidéo 20:30 - 00:40 - Visite musicale des Nymphéas)

 

Paris 2e

BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE - MUSÉE DES MONNAIES, MÉDAILLES ET ANTIQUES. 58 rue de Richelieu 75002 Paris 2ème - France.Téléphone 01 53 79 59 59 Porte ouverte exceptionnelle en présence des conservateurs (19:00 - 00:00)

Paris 3e (25 événements)

 

Paris 3e

CENTRE CULTUREL SUISSE. 32 et 38 rue des Francs Bourgeois 75003 Paris 3ème - France. Téléphone 01 42 71 44 50

Visite de l'exposition temporaire (13:00 - 22:00)

 

INSTITUT SUÉDOIS. 11 rue Payenne 75003 Paris 3ème - France.Téléphone 01 44 78 80 20

Exposition «Sigvard Bernadotte - inspiratör, entreprenör, designdirektör» (12:00 - 22:30)

Soirée du festival international «INFR'ACTION Paris» 2010 (18:00 - 22:30)

 

INSTITUTO CULTURAL DE MÉXICO. 119 rue Vielle du Temple 75003 Paris 3ème - France.

Visite de l'exposition (14:30 - 20:00)

 

MUSÉE CARNAVALET, MUSÉE DE L'HISTOIRE DE PARIS. 23 rue de Sévigné 75003 Paris 3ème - France.

Visite du musée et des expositions permanentes (19:00 - 00:00)

Musique dans les jardins du musée (19.00 - 00.00)

 

MUSÉE COGNACQ-JAY. Hôtel de Donon 8 rue Elzévir 75003 Paris 3ème - France. Téléphone 01 40 27 07 21

« Toucher du bois », découvrir la technique de fabrication des meubles du XVIIIe siècle (18.00 - 23.00 )

Lectures de « Mémoire de femme et de peintre. Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, témoin de son temps » (18.00 - 23.00)

 

MUSÉE D'ART ET D'HISTOIRE DU JUDAÏSME. Hôtel de Saint-Aignan 71 rue du Temple 75003 Paris 3ème - France. Téléphone 01 53 01 86 60

Visite libre et visite guidée du musée (19.00 - 00.00)

 

MUSÉE DE L'HISTOIRE DE FRANCE - ARCHIVES NATIONALES. Hôtel de Soubise 60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois 75003 Paris 3ème - France. Téléphone 01 40 27 62 56

Nuit des musées aux Archives nationales jusqu'à 1h (14:00 - 01:00)

Programme de la Nuit - Cour d'Honneur de Soubise (14:00 - 01:00)

Programme de la Nuit - rez-de-chausée de l'Hôtel de Soubise (14:00 - 01:00)

Programme de la Nuit - premier étage de l'Hôtel de Soubise (14:00 - 01:00)

 

MUSÉE DE LA CHASSE ET DE LA NATURE. Hôtel de Mongelas 62 rue des Archives 75003 Paris 3ème - France. Téléphone 01 53 01 92 40

Visite des collections permanentes (19:00-01:00)

«Antoine Schneck, Leur chien» - Exposition temporaire (19:00-01:00)

« Théo Mercier, Hunted Haunted» - Exposition temporaire (19:00-01:00)

Talents Klassiks - projection vidéo (19:00 - 01:00)

«Qui sont les animaux?» - projection des vidéos du Prix 2010 Nuit des musées au musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (19:00-01:00)

Catherine Epars, Semper Virens (20:00-01:00)

 

MUSÉE DES ARTS ET METIERS. 60 rue Réaumur 75003 Paris 3ème - France. Téléphone 01 53 01 82 00

Collections permanentes du Musée des arts et métiers (18.00 - 00.00)

Mais que se passe-t-il donc aux Arts et Métiers ? (18.00 - 22.00)

Mystère aux Arts et métiers (19.15 - 22.15)

Dessine-moi un objet du futur (18.00 - 20.00)

Visites flashs (18.00 - 23.30)

L'Irruption de l'Espace (18.00 - 00.00)

Paris 4e (13 événements)

 

Paris 4e

CENTRE WALLONIE-BRUXELLES. 7 rue de Venice 75004 Paris 4ème - France. Téléphone 01 53 01 96 96

LE BONHEUR EST DANS LE DESIGN ! - La collection du Grand-Hornu(18:00 - 23:00)

 

CENTRE CULTUREL DE SERBIE. 123 rue Saint Martin 75004 Paris 4ème - France.

Exposition « Serbie, Le pays des fresques « (18:00 - 00:00)

 

CENTRE NATIONAL D'ART ET DE CULTURE GEORGES POMPIDOU. 19 plateau Beaubourg 75004 Paris 4ème - France. Téléphone 01 44 78 12 33

Visite des collections permanentes du Musée (20:00 - 01:00. Dernières entrées au centre à 00.00)

Visite de l'exposition « ERRÓ. 50 ans de collages» (20.00 - 01.00)

Visite de l'exposition « Patrick Jouin. La substance du design » (20.00 - 01.00)

Visite de l'exposition « Sarkis. Passages » (20.00 - 01.00)

Visite de l'exposition pour le jeune public « Tadashi Kawamata. Carton workshop » (20.00 - 23.00)

Visites «Coups de cœur» dans les collections permanentes du Musée (21.00 - 00.00)

Animations autour de l'exposition pour le jeune public « Tadashi Kawamata. Carton workshop » (20.00 - 23.00 )

 

MAISON DE VICTOR HUGO. 6 place des Vosges 75004 Paris 4ème - France.

L'Orient : poésie en voix et en signes (20.00 - 21.15)

Lecture en famille « L'art d'être grand-père » (21.30 - 22.00)

Découverte de l'exposition « Les Orientales » (18.00 - 23.00)

 

PAVILLON DE L'ARSENAL. 21 boulevard Morland. 75004 Paris 4ème - France

LE WILD CLUB AU PAVILLON DE L'ARSENAL (19.00 - 23.00)

Paris 5e (17 événements)

 

Paris 5e

CENTRE CULTUREL IRLANDAIS. 5 rue des Irlandais 75005 Paris 5ème - France.

Visite de l'exposition (20:00 - 00:00)

 

COLLECTION DE MINERAUX DE L'UNIVERSITÉ PIERRE ET MARIE CURIE. 4 place Jussieu 75005 Paris 5ème - France.

Visite de la Collection de Minéraux de l'UPMC (18:00 - 23:00)

 

GALERIE DE MINÉRALOGIE ET DE GÉOLOGIE. Jardin des Plantes 36 rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 75005 Paris 5ème - France. Téléphone 01 40 79 30 00

Visite libre (18:00 - 00:00)

 

GRANDE GALERIE DE L'ÉVOLUTION - MUSÉUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE. 36 rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 75005 Paris 5ème - France. Téléphone 01 40 79 54 79

Visite du lieu (19.00 - 00.00)

 

MUSÉE DE L'ASSISTANCE PUBLIQUE - HOPITAUX DE PARIS. Hôtel de Miramion 47 quai de la Tournelle 75005 Paris 5ème - France. Téléphone 01 40 27 50 05

Chorégraphies courtes (19.30 - 23.30)

Concert (19.30 - 23.30)

Dégustation de bouillon (21.30 - 23.30)

 

MUSÉE DE LA PRÉFECTURE DE POLICE. 4 rue de la Montagne Ste-Geneviève 75005 Paris 5ème - France.

La Musique des gardiens de la paix (21:00 - 23:00)

Visites de la collection permanente et de l'exposition temporaire (19:00 - 23:30)

 

Cour de l'hôtel de Cluny © RMN/Thierry Ollivier

 

MUSÉE DU MOYEN AGE - THERMES ET HÔTEL DE CLUNY. Hôtel de Cluny 6 place Paul Painlevé 75005 Paris 5ème - France. Téléphone 01 53 73 78 00

« Paris, ville rayonnante » (19.30 - 23.45)

Démonstration et initiation à la taille de la pierre. (19.30 - 23.45)

« L'Irruption de l'espace » (19.30 - 23.45)

Accès exceptionnel au jardin d'inspiration médiéval. (19.30 - 23.45)

 

MUSÉE DU SERVICE DE SANTE DES ARMÉES AU VAL-DE-GRACE.1 place Alphonse Laveran 75005 Paris 5ème - France. Téléphone 01 40 51 51 92

Visite libre et guidée (19.00 - 23.00)

Musique dans l'église (orgue) (20.00 - 22.00)

 

MUSÉE NATIONAL DU MOYEN-ÂGE. 6 place Paul Painlevé 75005 Paris 5ème - France

L'Irruption de l'Espace (18.00 - 00.00)

 

MUSÉUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE. Place Valhubert 75005 Paris 5ème - France. Téléphone 01 40 79 56 01

Visite commentée et animée par les médiateurs scientifiques du Museum (19.00 - 00.00)

Paris 6e (12 événements)

CENTRE TCHÈQUE DE PARIS. 18 rue Bonaparte 75006 Paris 6ème - France. Téléphone 01 53 73 00 22

Rudolf Dzurko - retrospective (18:00 - 20:00)