Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Paris Writers News Update May 2010

 This month, news from Douglas Hawes, Judith Merians, John Edgar Wideman, Jeffrey Greene, Heather Hartley, Willard Spiegelman and Cecilia Woloch,  Constance Borde, Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, Laura Furman, Diane Johnson, Daniyal Mueenuddin, BEEBE BAHRAMI, CHRISTINE BUCKLEY, JOHANNA GOHMAN, WELLS TOWER, KENNETH BROWN, GAWAIN DOUGLAS, ROB STEPHENSON, ASSAF GAVRON, MARILYNNE ROBINSON, KERI WALSH, David Lebovitz, The Parisian Literary Salon, Gwyneth Hughes, Patricia Kogan, Moving Parts, the Gare St Lazare Players, WRITING BY THE SEINE, Paris Poetry Workshop, PWW, Rosalia Gitau and Curtis Brown

 

And new PWN interviews with Diane Johnson and Ann M Mah!  

 

Paris Readings and Literary Events by Place (see sidebar for links):

• American Library in Paris
• Village Voice
• Shakespeare and Company
• WH Smith
• Moving Parts

 

The American Library in Paris

 Wednesday 5 May 19h30 Evenings with an Author Douglas Hawes presents ‘Oradour: The Final Verdict,’ the anatomy and aftermath of a massacre.

 Tuesday 11 May 19h30 A Night at the Movies Judith Merians on ‘City of God’ and making a story set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro appealing.

 Wednesday 13 May 19h30 Evenings with an Author Acclaimed novelist and memoirist John Edgar Wideman on ‘Briefs, Stories for the Palm of the Mind.’

Saturday 15 May 10h00-19h00 Used Book Sale all day at the Library.

Tuesday 18 May 19h30 On Pleasure and Poetry: A literary evening with Jeffrey Greene, Heather Hartley, Willard Spiegelman and Cecilia Woloch.

  Wednesday 19 May 19h30 Evenings with an Author Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier on their new translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex.’

 Wednesday 26 May 19h30 Evenings with an Author Laura Furman, Diane Johnson and Daniyal  Mueenuddin on the art of the short story and its place in American literature today. (To read Rosalia Gitau's interview with Diane Johnson, click here.)

  

Village Voice

KENNETH BROWN & CO. Thursday, May 6th at 7pm Haifa: States of Mind

 CECILA WOLOCH Thursday, May 20th at 7 pm Carpathia

WELLS TOWER Tuesday, May 25th at 7pm Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
BEEBE BAHRAMI, CHIRSTINE BUCKLEY, JOHANNA GOHMAN Tuesday, June 1st at 7 pm
Best Women’s Travel Writing

GAWAIN DOUGLAS Thursday, June 3rd at 7 pm Fortuna

ABOVE GROUND ANTHOLOGY Thursday, June 17th at 7 pm Above Ground

 

Shakespeare and company

10 MAY: ROB STEPHENSON, PASSES THROUGH
17 MAY: ASSAF GAVRON, CROCATTACK!/ALMOST DEAD
21 MAY: CECILIA WOLOCH’S PARIS POETRY WORKSHOP
26 MAY: MARILYNNE ROBINSON
 10 JUNE: KERI WALSH, THE LETTERS OF SYLVIA BEACH

 

WH Smith

Wednesday 19th May 2010 - 7 p.m. David Lebovitz will present  and sign his new book, "Ready for Dessert"

  

 The Parisian Literary Salon

A curious & diverse group gathers to discuss and probe a specific text facilitated by Toby Brothers who has run literary Salons in Paris and London for six years. Texts range from Dante to Joyce, Shakespeare to Rushdie with poetry and creative writing opportunities.

In “Salon Intensives”, we meet for five hours and discuss the entire book at one go, breaking for a potluck dinner part way through the session. As the afternoon deepens into evening, we move further and further into the language and structure of the work. The conversation builds around participants’ questions and insights; when we finish, we KNOW the book and have engaged deeply with the themes and context.

Upcoming Salons: Book descriptions can be found on the website, along with participant feedback

Beloved  by Toni Morrison  Friday May 21^st 5-10 PM

Light in August  by William Faulkner  Saturday May 21^st 5-10 PM

Each one-day intensive cost 45 euro—this includes copies of supplementary articles. Registration is happening now; for details email Toby Brothers at [email protected]. More information can be found on the Salon website: http://literarysalon.free.fr 

 

 Play readings by Moving Parts with the kind permission of Carr's Pub & Restaurant. Always on Sundays, always at 7.30 pm

   9^th May                   Gwyneth Hughes               "Swansongs" (in English)

23^rd May                   Patricia Kogan                   "Vide Grenier" (screenplay mostly in English)

 Contact Stephanie to book a reading of YOUR play.  Bookings now being taken for November onwards. Latest version available on the website : www.movingparts.org.uk or send an e-mail to the movingpartsparis address at gmail.com or Stephanie Campion on : 06 14 67 18 58

 

Vendredi 7 et samedi 8 mai 10 à 19h30 Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue de Irlandais, 75005 Paris
Gare St Lazare Players present Moby Dick adapted from  Herman Melville. No fee but reservation suggested [email protected] ;  T: 01 58 52 10 30

 

Workshops

 May 9th - June 6th : Plot and Narrative Containers: at WRITING BY THE SEINE: A five-week Sunday writing workshop offering a creative and supportive space for hopeful, emerging and experienced writers. 11AM - 1PM at the Shakespeare and Co bookshop, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Contribution: 50 euros for an entire 5-week cycle. Please contact the workshop leader, Susannah Elisabeth Pabot, at[email protected] for more details and to reserve a place.

 

May 16 through May 21: 2010 Paris Poetry Workshop! For the eighth consecutive year, the Paris Poetry Workshop (PPW) will offer English-speaking poets from the U.S. and Europe the opportunity to come together for a week of intensive workshops with Cecilia Woloch, talks with Paris-based poets and writers, and evening readings at various locales around the city. Fee is $895. Limited to 10 participants. For more information, contact Cecilia at[email protected].

 

 

Mark your calendar:

 

June 5 & 6. Workshop with Pedro Alcantara, open to all, no previous experience is needed. Limited to 10 participants. Cost: €40 for one day, €70 for both

Festival and Co: June 18-20 : Storytelling and Politics

This year's theme will explore the way writers depict, transform and influence their environment. What role does the imagination play in the world today? Who are today’s storytellers and what are the most influential narratives? Can a work of fiction reflect society without being political? Do writers have a particular responsibility? Should literature engage with the world, or offer respite from it? Authors will discuss these issues amongst others and look at the importance of literature in our present cultural and political climate.

Over the course of three days we will host readings, panel discussions and book signings. Held in the park René Viviani next to Shakespeare & Company, opposite Notre Dame, the festival will attract authors, actors and spectators from around the world.

To sign up for our monthly newsletter, send an email to [email protected] 

 June 27-July 2, 2010: Paris Writers Workshop! France's longest running English language writers workshop will take place from June 27-July 2, 2010. Visit: http://www.pariswritersworkshop.org/ or click here for details. Email: [email protected]

 

New agent at Curtis Brown actively looking for authors :  Sarah LaPolla began at Curtis Brown in 2008, working with Dave Barbor and Peter Ginsberg. Sarah is interested in literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, science fiction, literary horror, and young adult fiction. She loves complex characters, coming-of-age stories, and strong narrators. Sarah graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Writing and English, and went on to receive her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. She is always on the lookout for debut authors and welcomes email submissions at [email protected].  http://www.curtisbrown.com/lapolla.php

Carla Bruni Sarkozy to appear as heroine in FEMALE FORCE comic book series

 What does the beautiful Carla Bruni have in common with Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Clinton, Michelle Obama--and, yes--Sarah Palin? 

You guessed it!  She's to be the star of her own comic book!

An outfit called Blue Water Productions had the excellent idea of creating a series called "Female Force" which highlights the histories of famous female politicians and political wives.

Reviews are mixed (artwork, story, accuracy, etc) but what a fun idea. BDs or bandes desinées, as comic books are called, are taken seriously in France.

Remains to be seen which elements of Mrs Sarkozy's highly unusual biography will make the cut.

Ten rules for writing fiction : Zadie Smith from guardian.co.uk

 1 When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

2 When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.

3 Don't romanticise your "vocation". You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no "writer's lifestyle". All that matters is what you leave on the page.

4 Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can't do aren't worth doing. Don't mask self-doubt with contempt.

5 Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.

6 Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won't make your writing any better than it is.

7 Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.

8 Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

9 Don't confuse honours with achievement.

10 Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.

To read the complete Guardian article, click here.

Can France revoke citizenship? Not for welfare fraud or polygamy, under current law

As President  Sarkozystruggles to outlaw the head-to-toe covering called the burqa for its role in the oppression of  women, the case of the Muslim driver fined 22 euros has taken a new and interesting turn.

French Minister of the Interior Brice Hortefeux has jumped into the fray, saying that the husband of the woman fined for driving with a visibility-reducing niqab belongs to an Islamic movement that practices polygamy, which is illegal in France.

According to Le Figaro, Mr. Hortefeux discovered that the husband has four wives and 12 children, all of which receive subsidies meant for single parents from the French government. The welfare payment, called the allocation de parent isole, is often paid to the children of polygamous fathers who have immigrated from Africa or North Africa, although this is technically illegal and considered fraud in France. 

The Minister of the Interior has declared his intention to revoke, if possible,  the husband's citizenship for polygamy and welfare fraud. However current French law does not include polygamy and fraude as reasons for losing citizenship one has acquired through naturalisation.  A change in the law is under consideration.

This opens a new front in France's battle to define itself with respect to the more radical elements of its Islamic immigrant population.

Ten rules for writing fiction Annie Proulx from guardian.co.uk

 1 Proceed slowly and take care.

2 To ensure that you proceed slowly, write by hand.

3 Write slowly and by hand only about subjects that interest you.

4 Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.

5 Rewrite and edit until you achieve the most felicitous phrase/sentence/paragraph/page/story/chapter.

Ten rules for writing fiction Joyce Carol Oates from guardian.co.uk

 1 Don't try to anticipate an "ideal reader" – there may be one, but he/she is reading someone else.

2 Don't try to anticipate an "ideal reader" – except for yourself perhaps, sometime in the future.

3 Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!

4 Unless you are writing something very avant-garde – all gnarled, snarled and "obscure" – be alert for possibilities of paragraphing.

5 Unless you are writing something very post-modernist – self-conscious, self-reflexive and "provocative" – be alert for possibilities of using plain familiar words in place of polysyllabic "big" words.

6 Keep in mind Oscar Wilde: "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

7 Keep a light, hopeful heart. But expect the worst.

Ten rules for writing fiction : Richard Ford from guardian.co.uk

 1 Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea.

2 Don't have children.

3 Don't read your reviews.

4 Don't write reviews. (Your judgment's always tainted.)

5 Don't have arguments with your wife in the morning, or late at night.

6 Don't drink and write at the same time.

7 Don't write letters to the editor. (No one cares.)

8 Don't wish ill on your colleagues.

9 Try to think of others' good luck as encouragement to yourself.

10 Don't take any shit if you can possibly help it.

Paris elections: progress on the planned pedestrian pleasure park on the Seine?

In 2010, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe unveiled a plan for a pedestrian pleasure park on the Seine, promising less cars and more green.

Question for the candidates, three years later, what has become of this plan?

(see below for original renditions of the plan)

 Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe announced plans to convert two kilometers of fast car lanes along the Seine into  pedestrian walkways!  More space for people, less for automobiles. Here are some artists renditions of what it might look like...

   

If you like this urban planning, let Mr. Delanoe know you're interested in what happens now!

Here's a Figaro article for more..

Ann M Mah on food, identity and humor in Kitchen Chinese

Authors interview Authors:

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

 Laurel Zuckerman talks with Ann M Mah, author of the new book,Kitchen Chinese

 

 LZ: Ann Mah, you were born in California, won a James Beard Culinary Scolarship to study in Italy, worked in Beijing and now live in Paris. Who are you?

AAM: I've been lucky to live in places where good food is a key element of the local culture. My husband is a diplomat and we move often. Living in different cities has certainly shaped me, as has the experience of being a trailing spouse. But at the end of the day, I'd describe myself simply as someone who thinks about dinner while eating lunch. 

 

 LZ: “In Bejing, my Chinese appearance means that I can pass as a local as long as I keep my mouth shut.” Is this what make you a “banana”?

AAM: I first heard the term "banana" in high school (another word is "twinkie"). It refers to someone who is yellow on the outside, white on the inside; in other words someone who has assimilated so fully to Caucasian-American culture, they're oblivious to their ethnic identity. Growing up in the suburbs of Southern California, being a banana felt like a survival tactic. But after living in Beijing for four years, I'm not sure I could describe myself that way.

 LZ: The fabulous mother and Aunt Marcie pressure the heroine to undergo blepharoplasty (surgery on the eye-lids), bribing her with handbags and saying such horrors as “I know you want to look pretty.” (She finds it easier to go to China than to confront them.) Where did you find the inspiration for these wonderful passages?

AAM: Obviously the characters of Aunt Marcie and Isabelle's mother represent an extreme, but I think many cultures put pressure on young women to adapt to a certain standard of beauty. I have Jewish friends who've told me similar stories about mothers encouraging their daughters to get nose jobs. Ultimately, these passages are about perception, the way we view ourselves versus the way others see us, whether it be cultural identity, or physical appearance.      

 

 LZ: “Just because you visit China doesn’t mean your life is turning into an Amy Tan novel.” What do you have against Amy Tan?

AAM: To be clear -- I love Amy Tan's books. I first read the Joy Luck Club in 8th grade, and it was a formative experience. But when you have an Asian-American background, I think there can be this expectation that somewhere, somehow, you will yearn to discover your heritage, your roots. Amy Tan spoke for many Chinese Americans by writing about this in the Joy Luck Club. Unfortunately, Asian Americans are still woefully under-represented in literature, TV and film, so stories like these remain the few that are told. I wanted to show that there are also Asian Americans who don't yearn for this experience, who may visit the country of their ancestors without having a cultural epiphany.   

 

LZ: China and France have produced two great cuisines. Yet Chinese women are even thinner than French women. Why?

AAM: I don't know, but I must say I've noticed a lot of diet pills in both countries!   

 LZ:  Kitchen Chinese is a very easy book to read, with a lot of humor and sly observations. Tell us about your process as a writer to this seemingly effortless result.

AAM: Thank you -- I'm blushing! I've always admired stories that appear to very simple on the surface but become more complex as you peel back the layers and that's what I tried to create with this book. Writing is a very laborious process for me as I am far too easily distracted. Step one is definitely unplugging the internet. Then I have to sit on my hands to make sure I don't plug it back in.

 

LZ:  Are there special rules of etiquette for Chinese restaurants that we should know about? What is the worst mistake we’re all making right now?

AAM: You're never supposed to stick your chopsticks upright into a bowl of rice as it looks like incense at a funeral. But other than that, Chinese restaurants are pretty casual. 

 LZ: What’s next?

AAM: I would love to write something set in Paris, maybe about wine and a female sommelier. At least, the research would be fun.

 LZ:  As a special treat for PWN readers, could you recommend three restaurants in Paris?

 AAM:  1. Pâtes Vivantes (46 rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 9ème) -- I just discovered this Chinese noodle restaurant in the 9th. They make fresh pulled noodles and knife-cut noodles just like I've seen in China!

2. La Laiterie (64 rue de Bellechasse) -- Tiny and hip, with a chalkboard menu of seasonal dishes that have a dash of ethnic flair.

 3. Le Mistral (401 rue des Pyrénées) -- My husband has been friends with the owners for over 20 years, but I would recommend this simple bistro even if we didn't know them. Their Averyonnais specialties like aligot and sausage are like a big, hearty hug

To order Kitchen Chinese, click Kitchen Chinese.

PARIS WRITERS NEWS FLASH: APRIL 14TH READING AT BERKELEY BOOKS for UPSTAIRS AT DUROC

 FLASH : Wednesday April 14, 2010, 7 PM - The Paris literary magazine UPSTAIRS AT DUROC invites you to attend the first reading in their new series, Pause on the Landing, featuring new and established writers of prose and poetry in a convivial setting

Come hear work by JACQUELINE BISHOP (poetry),DIMITRI KERAMITAS (prose)and SARAH EMILY MIANO (prose)

 April 14, 2010, 7 PM Berkeley Books of Paris 8 rue Casimir Delavigne 75006 Paris,  Metro Odéon

Jacqueline Bishop is the author of two collections of poems: Fauna and Snapshots from Istanbul, both published by Peepal Tree Press in the UK. Other publications include My Mother Who Is Me: Life Stories from Jamaican Women in New York; Writers Who Paint, Writers Who Write: Three Jamaican Artists; and the novel, The River’s Song. She is the founding editor of Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters and is the recipient of a 2008-9 Fulbright award to Morocco. She is also a visual artist.

Dimitri Keramitas was educated at the University of Hartford (Connecticut), the Sorbonne, and the University of London. His short fiction has been published in many literary journals. He worked as journalist and film reviewer for The Key, a Paris-based bimonthly, and also had film criticism published in La Revue du Cinéma and Ink Magazine. He currently writes for several print and online magazines.

 Sarah Emily Miano is a former chef, tour guide and private eye. She received an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, studying under W.G. Sebald. Her first novel, Encyclopaedia of Snow, was published in nine languages, as was her second, Van Rijn, about the life of Rembrandt, which also received a UK Arts Council Award. She lives near Paris, where she reviews fiction for The Observer and The Times, as well as working on her next novel, Buffalo Wings.

 

New Workshops:

 April 19-23, 2010: Writing Conference “Do your most authentic work in Paris.” Story and manuscript development come alive at this five-day workshop. Develop your book, fine tune your manuscript, and perfect your writing in progress. Writers of all levels attend to generate new material, develop ideas, or perfect works in progress. The conference takes place at a 4-star hotel in Paris' literary and arts neighborhood, steps from the Louvre. Led by NY Times bestselling author and literary agent Wendy Goldman Rohm, this retreat has been held since 2002 worldwide, originally inspired by Rohm's Masters Tea at Yale University.http://www.pariswritersretreat.com/index.html

THRILLER - COMEDIE - LOVE STORY

22, 23 et 24 April 2010 Robert McGee: La structure narrative des genres

See website for fees and more information