Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Literary Events, Readings and New Books in Paris May 2013

This month, news from Peter Gumbel, Barry Kirwan, Nancy Kricorian, Roderick d'Entrac, Cathy Altman Nocquet, Douglas Kennedy, Nathalie Bassand, Edward Rutherfurd, Ann Saul, Rupert Thomson, Elena Nesti, Rosemary Flannery, Elliot Perlman,  Elena Nesti, Ben Fountain, Kate Noakes, Jerome Charyn, Linda Lappin, Roy Lisker, Margaret Aldridge, David Barnes, Alice Boatwright,  the Over 50s contest, the Prada contest, Moving Parts, Paris Lit Up, the Paris Prize, the Novella Contest, and more…  (update in progress)

 

NEW BOOKS from Paris Writers

 

Eden's Revenge by Barry Kirwan, the thrilling third book in The Eden Paradox Series ("“Brilliant plotting, sizzling action, awe-inspiring aliens")

 

Paris to the Pyrenees : a Skeptical Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James by David Downie  ("Motivated not by God, but by nearly everything else, American author David Downie traveled hundreds of miles on foot across France." NPR)

Elite Academie: Enquête sur la France Malade de ses Grandes Ecoles by Peter Gumbel, also available in English as France's Got Talent (May 15); From the bestselling author of They Shoot Schoolchildren, Don't They?

 

Paris to Provence: Childhood Memories of Food & France Ethel Brennan and Sara Remington ("partly a travelogue and part cookbook.. beautifully photographed")

 

Five Days by Douglas Kennedy ("a brilliant meditation on regret, fidelity, family, and second chances")

Paris Night by Roderick d'Entrac ("a highly topical thriller")

 

NEWS: Alice Boatwright's Collateral Damage received the Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. The award ceremony will be on 29 May in New York City.

Selected Literary Events in Paris this May

 (for more events - especially poetry, music, bilingual readings  and literary in French - please see the excellent Paris Readings and Events)

Sunday, 5th May 2013 at 7.30 pm MOVING  PARTS presents presents 3 one-act plays SES PLUMES COMME DE LA NEIGE by Nathalie Bassand with YANNICK ROCHER, GEN SHIMAOKA and PABLO DIAZ,  BITE  THE  APPLE by Elena Nesti with KRISTINA DEKENS and CARLINE LEMIRE, and CHANGING TABLES by  Elena Nesti with JOLAINE BEAL at Carr's Pub & Restaurant 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

 

May 5 and 6:  The May Used Book Sale The Library’s first-weekend-of-the-month book sales are getting bigger and bigger.. Most books at €3, €2, and €1! For details on how to donate books to the Library, see the Book Bags & Book Donations page on our website. American Library in Paris

6 May 7 pm: Rupert Thomson on Secrecy Shakespeare and  Company

 

May 6th – Danger – Spoken word  Open mic/scène ouverte: Performance poetry. Lire vivant. Poésie sonore. Stand up. Monologue. Stories. Beat poetry. Spoken word. English. Français. Your own original texts. Old texts from Rimbaud to Dr Seuss, Beowulf to Gil Scott-Heron. Chacun a son mot à dire. Make the words come alive. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Sign up from 7.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground. Check out the Practical info page for more info.

 

Tuesday 14 May   19h30 Ben Fountain presents Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. American Library in P aris

 

Tuesday 14 May  3-5pm  Rosemary Flannery will speaking about her book, Angels of Paris,  upstairs at La Pierre du Marais, Corner of rue des Archives and rue de Bretagne  75003.   3:00 - 5:00pm. 

May 15th from 3:30-5pm Cathy Altman Nocquet will sign her book Write Outside the Lines AT  L'Emile Booksore in Paris ave Emile Zola in the 15th 


Wednesday 15 May   19h30 Nancy Kricorian reveals the Armenian immigrant experience in Paris in All the Light There Was. American Library in Paris

15 May 7 pm:  Ben Fountain on Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Shakespeare and  Company

 

Friday 17th May 7:00pm Elliot Perlman on The Street Sweeper. Shakespeare and  Company

Tuesday 21 May   19h30 Jerome Charyn tells a tale of Emily Dickinson in The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. American Library in Paris

Wednesday 22 May   19h30 Ann Saul presents and discusses the work of Danish-French artist Camille Pissarro in Pissarro's Places. American Library in Paris

 26th May MOVING PARTS play reading Roy Lisker's "Commerce and Illusions" Carr's Pub & Restaurant 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries          

Sunday 26th May 6:00pm Carol Ann Duffy, one of the most important and best-loved voices in contemporary British poetry AT Shakespeare and  Company             

27 May SpokenWord!– open mic/scène ouverte: performance poetry, stand up, monologue, stories, beat poetry, sketches, songs, spoken word. Primarily in English but open to all languages. Your own original texts or favourite old texts – from Rimbaud to Dr Seuss, Beowulf to Gil Scott-Heron.  Sign up in the bar from 7.30pm for your 5 minutes of fame. Poetics begin underground from 8.30pm. Make the words come alive. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Run by David Barnes & Alberto Rigettini. http://spokenwordparis.org/ 

28 May at 7 p.m. POETS LIVE invites you to an evening of poetry and image, with an English poet, a Swedish poet and a Swedish photographer—the reading, as always, will be in English.  Come at 7 p.m. for a drink at the bar, the reading will begin at 7.30 (on the dot), downstairs in “le cave.” AT: Carr’s Pub, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris, Métro: Tuileries

29th May 6pm Philosophers in the Library at Shakespeare and Co. on the shifting meanings of the concept of law. Join a conversation led by Gregory Bligh, doctoral student in legal philosophy at Paris II and the French child of English parents, for an exploration of law, rights, and fairness in two very different languages. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/

30 May  19h30-00h00 Paris Lit Up Open Mic night every Thursday (in English  or other languages.  Sign up all night, but first come first served from 19h30. Starts at 20h with rotating hosts Jason Mc Gimsey, Kate Noakes, Emily Ruck-Keene. AT: the historic home of French Slam poetry, Culture Rapide, at 103 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020. For more or to see whether there are featured themes and readers: http://parislitup.com/ai1ec_event/paris-lit-up-open-mic/?instance_id=9261

30th May – 1st June International Conference on Vladimir Nabokov The Enchanted Researchers Society, also known as Société Française Vladimir Nabokov, is organizing its first International Conference in Paris.  The conference is free and open to all. Please register if you wish to attend. For further information and registration, please visit their website at: http://www.vladimir-nabokov.org/ Each day’s events are held in different places, so do consult their site AND “register”—many free events require your name on a list.

 

Intriguing Calls for Submissions and Nominations:

 

Calling all fiction writers 50 and older! Huff/Post50 is seeking short-story submissions. 

Prada is  launching a short story contest, with a 5000 euro prize. Details here http://www.prada.com/fr/journal/terms?cc=GB … (rather legalistic submissions rules)

Call for nominations: THE AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD will be given to the best book of the year in English about France or the French-American encounter. NOMINATIONS:   The deadline for the nominations for the Award is June 1, 2013.

Call for entries for the CAN WRITING International, deadline June 15th. Participants email their response (1000 words max) to any exercise in Cathy Altman Nocquet's book WOTL for a chance to win freeclasses. Contact can.writing@free.fr for more info

 

 

Writing Classes and Workshops

Paris Lit Up Writing Workshop

A drop-in workshop led by Kate Noakes on the first Sunday of every month at 12h30 – 14h30 at Shakespeare and Company. Open to all. Kate provides ideas and writing prompts on a theme each month. It is not a feedback workshop. More information about the instructor blog. The workshop cost is a suggested donation of 10 Euros.

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The Paris Writers’ Group

Open to all writers, regardless of genre: fiction, poetry, theatre, journalism, essay, criticism, dreams, musical lyrics – as well as translators of any and all of the above.  Held occasional Wednesdays at Le Café Apparement, 18 rue des Coutures Saint-Gervaise, near the Picasso Museum. Sign up to the online group for notification and further details here: meetup.com/pariswriters/ The workshop is free, but please be prepared to buy a drink or something more substantial from the cafe. The group is currently hosted by John Pope and/or Helen Cusack O’Keeffe.

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Paris Lit Up Friday Writers

Monthly feedback workshop for poets and prose writers, meets at a private venue on a Friday evening to read, comment and quaff.  Invitation only group. If you have been writing for a while and think you might like to join this group please send a sample of your work and your bio to moc.putilsirap@ofni. We can’t promise there will be a space, but it would be good to know you are interested.

 

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WICE Summer Writing Classes

For information and inscriptions, see http://www.wice-paris.org/pariswritersworkshop

 

Other literary resources at WICE

• Upstairs at Duroc, an international literary and arts journal that publishes established and emerging Paris-based writers.
• Bilingual Book Group, a monthly get together to discuss books (French and English).
• Writers on Writing, informal conversations with accomplished writers to inspire and inform the art and craft of writing.
• Paris Writers’ Workshop, a summer writing workshop offering instruction from some of the best contemporary writers in the world.

 

***

Casting announcement for English-speaking and other actors from Margaret Aldridge

This autumn (September/October) we're shooting a black comedy/horror film set in the Var.  We need male and female actors.  It's low budget, so unpaid ("deferred payment" possibilities)  but all travel and accommodation will be reimbursed. Please send your headshot, bodyshot and cv to Margaret (not to Moving Parts) on :magsaldridge@gmail.com

The main roles are as follows:

Male 40-50 suave sophisticated eccentric charismatic

Male 31-40 feral, scruffy, resemblance to Pan

Male 40-50 average all round

Male 20s    quite good looking, slim

Male 20s    boyish looking, slightly overweight

Male 40-50 Russian looking, Russian accent, overweight, heavy set

Male 20s    Good looking, French accent, wiry. Acrobatics necessary

Female 40-50  American, vague and a bit dizzy. Attractive but not overly

Female 30-40  English, bit brassy and cheap.  Good figure

Female 30s     Russian accent.  Plain but slim.

Female 20/30s Russian accent.  Gorgeous, Fantastic figure

Female 30s      Average, quite attractive, English, good legs

_____________________________________________________________________

“A BLEEDING HORSE” CASTING CALL: Looking for extras for the following settings!

TRANSLIT OFFICE

Dates: Wednesday 1st of May, Saturday 4th of May, Sunday 5th of May, Saturday 25th of May, Sunday 26th of May.

Age range: mid-twenties to early forties…

Costume requirements:  office suit and dress. Look sharp, your characters are all working for a translation agency in Paris!

ART GALLERY EXTRAS

Dates: Tuesday 7th of May, Wednesday  8th of May.

Age range: mid-twenties to mid-forties…

Costume requirements: dress chic. You’re all going to an art exhibit in Paris!

COFFEE SHOP EXTRAS

For Monday 10th of June, Tuesday 11th of June…

Age range: mid-twenties to forties…

Costume requirements: Dress casual! You’re going there for coffee or to work on your laptop!

Of course, you will all be compensated for this.

Ask for Olivia Fuchs once you get on set.

Please email; christian_delavie@ hotmail.com and adrien@onegatif.com (not Moving Parts)

 

Jennie Fields, author of The Age of Desire, talks with Anne Korkeakivi, author of An Unexpected Guest

Authors interview Authors

Jennie Fields ( The Age of Desire)  talks with Anne Korkeakivi (An Unexpected Guest) about Paris, women in publishing, and the challenges of making Edith Wharton have sex...

Jennie Fields and Anne Korkeakivi met in the modern way of writers, via Twitter. "We discovered that not only do we both have recent novels set primarily in Paris, but that both hers, The Age of Desire (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking; 2012), and mine, An Unexpected Guest (Little, Brown; 2012), favor the long and elegant Rue de Varenne in the seventh arrondissement. I’d chosen the Rue de Varenne as the nexus for my story because of the official residences and Rodin Museum that line it; for Jennie, the street is home to the former Parisian apartments of Edith Wharton, her novel’s central character. Of course, I wanted to read it."

 

The Age of Desire, Jennie’s fourth novel, takes the reader back one hundred years into the cosmopolitan but increasingly chaotic personal life of Edith Wharton after the mega-success of The House of Mirth. Jennie will appear at W.H. Smith/Paris on April 25^th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, to sign copies then read from the book.

 ***

 

Anne Korkeakivi: How did you come to write about Edith Wharton? Why did you choose this particular period of her life?

Jennie Fields: Edith has been my favorite writer since I was in college.  From the first time I read her, I was entranced. I've always considered her insight unmatched, her command of language awe-inspiring.  In April 2008, I was in Paris on business and walked down the Rue de Varenne -- Edith's street -- by chance and for the first time. When I got back to my hotel, there was an e-mail to call my agent.  Two weeks earlier, I’d had lunch with Lisa and told her, "If you have any idea for my fourth novel, let me know.  I’ve tried lots of things and I’m stuck." When I called, she said, "Why don't you write about your favorite writer, Edith Wharton?"   The timing was eerie as she had no idea I was in Paris or, of course, that I walked down Edith’s street that very day. My heart started to hammer. I knew that minute how I'd be spending the next few years.  

 

I wasn’t familiar with Edith’s life then, except I was aware she'd had a late life love affair.  Once I did my research, I was fascinated by how arid Edith's love life was until she encountered Morton, and I became more and more curious why such a brilliant, accomplished woman would choose a bounder like Morton. Her diaries and love letters -- all of which still exist -- were truly enlightening.

 

AK: Wharton is portrayed as brilliant but not unflawed. Did your feelings towards Wharton change in any way during the course of researching and writing the book?

 

JF: I had always known Edith wasn’t a warm cuddly person.  She was brilliant, and like most brilliant people not always easy.  What surprised me most was how love undid Edith.  She became like a sixteen-year-old girl: giddy, confused, filled with outsized longings. She even abased herself to Morton in the love letters.  She thought herself not worthy of him – a man who was truthfully, nothing special, a bounder, a roué.  Those letters were painful to read. She was wildly enamored and had no past experience to consult.  In one letter she told him not to write her unless he wanted to, then the following letter basically said, “Did you really think I didn’t mean it?”   Her diaries were equally off-balance.  I guess love is the great equalizer.

 

AK: The novel contains excerpts from letters and a journal. Were these based on real documents? The research that went into this book clearly was prodigious; the detail is meticulous. It never occurred to me that Edith Wharton might have munched on brightly colored Ladurée macaroons.

 

JF: All the diary entries and most of the letters in the book are verbatim, though I had to edit a few. Morton’s letters to Edith no longer exist (she burned his letters as she begged him to burn hers) and I had to imagine them. 

 

As for Ladurée, I found two mentions of macaroons in her letters to friends.  In one, she wrote, “I’m sorry you’re tired again, but come and recover the ‘flesh’ here on our macarons!”  In another she mentioned how irresistible she found the macaroons at Ladurée.  I tried to research how Ladurée colored their macaroons back then and what flavors they had available but I couldn’t find any answers, so chose to imagine they were the rainbow they are now.  I adore Ladurée macaroons, so Edith and I have that in common!

 

 

AK: At times in the novel, Wharton expresses frustration with the publishing world, including attitudes towards female writers, being expected to write the same book over after having a success, and selling foreign rights. Were these preoccupations for Wharton? In the course of your research, did you find similarities between the world of book publishing then and now?

 

JF: Most of the attitudes in the novel I gleaned from letters Edith wrote to friends.  Edith wrote approximately six letters a day and people kept them, so thousands still exist, many available for research at the Beinecke Library at Yale. She quite openly expressed both her joys and frustrations. 

 

One of her greatest frustrations happened after the success of The House of Mirth, when Edith penned a very different book – The Fruit of the Tree, a socially conscious novel that took on some weighty issues including euthanasia.  It was not a success, which was painful and frustrating to her.  But she didn’t let it slow her down.  She wrote forty books in her lifetime.

 

You may be surprised to learn that Edith was the #1 bestselling writer of her era. She far outsold her friend, Henry James.  I think the world of publishing was quite different then.  Books were the top personal home entertainment.  She insisted on being deeply involved in the advertising, sales figures, distribution and business side of her books all through her life.  To say she liked to control her world is an understatement!   

 

 

AK; Do you think Wharton’s personal life and writing would have gone in a different direction if she hadn’t spent time in Paris? Did Paris cast any sort of spell on you while working on the book?

 

JF: Paris was extremely dear to Edith.  It was the place she felt she could breathe out and be herself.  She probably wouldn’t have had the courage to pursue her affair with Morton in the tight-knit society in New York where she felt all eyes were on her.  And certainly, her affair with Morton changed the course of her writing.  She could never have written about passion the way she did in The Age of Innocence if she hadn’t experienced it through him.

 

Edith became even more tied to France during World War I and won the French Legion of Honor for her extensive charity efforts in Paris.  After her divorce from Teddy, Edith only returned to the U.S. once, to receive an honorary doctorate from Yale. She lived the rest of her life in peaceful Saint-Brice-Sous-Forêt.  France was her spiritual home.  As for me, I loved coming to Paris to do my research into Edith’s Parisian world.  It was an extended joy to spend so much time writing “The Age of Desire” “in Paris” – if only in my mind.  Paris will always be dear to my heart.

 

AK: How was it making Edith Wharton have sex?

 

JF: I’m sure you will be quite surprised to learn that Edith wrote erotica and some of it still exists.  It is pretty extraordinary stuff.  No act of human sexuality goes un-described!  And to make it even more shocking, it’s about mutually embarked upon incest between a father and his grown daughter.  I took my cues about her attitudes towards sex and physicality from that erotica (sans the incest, of course.)  Morton once told her literary executor, Elsina Tyler, that while people imagined Edith as a tight-laced bluestocking, the truth is she was an exciting and adventurous partner.

 

AK: Before your first novel was published, you worked for many years in advertising. How did you make the switch to fiction? Did you find it easy?

 

JF: I’ve been writing fiction since I was six years old. I wrote a 365-page novel when I was nine.  I got my MFA from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop right after college, and I’d already written a real novel by the time I began to work as a copywriter.  Though writing was my passion, I knew I had to support my family and didn’t think I could count on a literary career to help me to do that so I chose advertising as my day job.

 

AK: What do you read while you are working on a novel? 

JF: While I was working on The Age of Desire, I read Edith Edith Edith!  No writing began without at least twenty minutes of Edith.  I also enjoyed other writers I admire like Ian McEwan, Sue Miller, Anne Tyler, and Barbara Kingsolver.   I have to read a great deal while I’m writing.  I consider it food for the writing gods.  Good writing makes me think deeply, raises the bar.

 

AK: Where do you live and write? Are you often in Paris? 

JF: After twenty-five years in NY, I now live in Nashville, TN, a place I never expected to end up.  And I love it.  It’s peaceful, friendly, inexpensive and full of truly interesting people who read, think, talk, and entertain.  Music is a driving force here.  But literature is too.  And when people say, “Let’s have lunch,” they actually call you the next day to schedule it.  I ended up here because my husband and I, who were college sweethearts, didn’t see each other for twenty-four years, married other people, had families and both had been divorced for years when we got back together.  He’s worked at Vanderbilt University for decades.  We live in a Craftsman-style stone house we love.  My writing room used to be a sleeping porch.  It has windows on three sides.  Twelve windows and a glass door.  That means light pours in.  The single non-glass wall is all books. I write in an easy chair with an ottoman, my laptop on my lap. To me, my writing room is the happiest place in the world. 

Another happy place: The City of Light.  I’ve visited Paris maybe ten or twelve times, both for business and pleasure.  I love having no plans so I can stroll down streets and just let them unfold.  The details on the buildings, in the shop windows are wonderful surprises. I hope I always have the means to come to Paris when the siren calls!

 

AK: What’s next?

 

JF: I’m writing another biographical novel about a woman who was born in 1849 and died in 1918.  And while I won’t reveal my subject’s name quite yet, I will say she was very important to the city of Chicago, spent time in Paris, and made her mark internationally at a time when women rarely were able to do that.  While in Paris, I’m visiting a few of the locations she visited including Mary Cassatt’s apartment.

 

Jennie Fields will present and sign THE AGE OF DESIRE, her novel based on the romantic life of Edith Wharton. AT WH SMITH in Paris SIGNING 6-7PM. BOOK PRESENTATION 7-8PM.  248 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France

How to ensure that young people hate and fear poetry - lessons from a French middle school

It's easy! 

Especially with teenagers, say, around age fifteen or so, who are just opening up to the mysterious powers of language and poetry.

All you have to do is to (teachers please take note):

1) put the kids in a stressful test situation - a bac blanc in a French public school or épreuves groupés in a private Catholic school

2) demand that they write a poem, under time constraints, on a passage from a text they studied

3) then, with a BRIGHT RED MARKER, scribble all over their poem:

TERRIBLE

AWKWARD

BADLY THOUGHT OUT

AWFUL RHYME

SLOPPY

UGLY

VERY POOR

with blood red circles around the offending portions of the child's poem.

Special tip: Correct the copy quickly with the aid of a "correct response grill" to ensure that no irony, humor, or otherwise subversive stray thought distract you.

4) Make sure that  "la moyenne" is less than 10 out of 20 (don't want the little writers to get proud, now, do we!) And, where possible, throw in some nasty oral commentary in front of their classmates as well!

All you writers out there know exactly what this kind of "teaching" moment will do to a person's (and not just a child's) enthusiasm for writing.

If I am furious enough to write this post, it's because an otherwise excellent French teacher at one of France's top middle schools did exactly this. Apparently thinking this was a normal and appropriate way to teach poetry...

Just when I thought it was safe to get back into the French school system.

 

 

 

Terrific literary events in Paris this month! Paris Writers News April 2013 Update

This month, news from Tatiana de Rosnay, Adam Biles, Charles Glass, Jennifer K Dick, Spoken Word, Gary Lee Kraut, Pamela Druckerman, Annik La Farge, Scott Hutchins, Siobhan Wall, Joanne and David Burke, Kathy D'Arcy, Ann Egan, Cliona O'Connell, Jennie Fields, Marilyn Hacker and Habib Tengour, Book Club at the Carmen, Moving Paris, IAN MONK, SARAH RIGGS, CHRISTOPHE LAMIOT ENOS, MARGO BERDESHEVSKY, RUFO QUINTAVALLE, WICE and more and more.... (update ongoing)!

 

 

NEW BOOKS

 Tatiana de rosnay : A L'ENCRE RUSSE Franco-English Tatiana de Rosnay is the author of eleven novels including Sarah's Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah),  Boomerang (2009) et Rose (2011). She is currently the most widely read French author in Europe and the USA.

Pamela Druckerman: Bébé by Day, a primer on the wisdom of French parenting reported on in Bringing Up Bébé. 

 Adam Biles : GREY CATS released in paperback 14th April by @3AMPress, now available for pre-order from @GalleyBeggars! http://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/book-store/3am-press/grey-cats-by-adam-biles/ …  (See interview with Adam Biles here)

 Jennifer Dick: CIRCUITS from Corrupt Press (http://corruptpress.net) inspired by the popular science of George Johnson’s seminal In the Palaces of Memory : "an extraordinary investigation into memory theory and the uncertainties of communication."

 Charles Glass: Deserter: The Last Untold Story of the Second World War  "a breathtaking work of historical reportage, weaving together the lives of forgotten servicemen even as it overturns the assumptions and prejudices of an era." (see interview with Charles Glass on his previous book Americans in Paris here)

 

 

 SELECTED LITERARY EVENTS IN PARIS

(update ongoing...please see sidebars for venues)

2013 Young Authors Fiction Festival - Deadline for submissions APRIL 1

MONDAY NIGHTS : Open mic/scène ouverte every Monday. with David Barnes Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Sign up from 7.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground. Check out the Practical info page for more info. Click on the blue stamp on the right to sign up to the mailing list. Themes:  April 1st – Do/say something in the spirit of April Fool’s Day; April 8th – Swedish girls; April 15th – Consequences; April 22nd – Strange; April 29th – Guilty pleasures;  May 6th – Danger

THURSDAY NIGHTS / Paris Lit Up Open Mic, held every Thursday at Culture Rapide, has become a stimulating mix of poets from all over the world, in languages ranging from English to Portuguese to Russian, Japanese and Korean! Swing by and check it out this week with Emily Ruck Keene as MC.

 

Tuesday 02 April 2013, 19:30 Annik La Farge, author of the new book On the High Line: Exploring American’s Most Original Urban ParK AT The American Library in Paris

 April 2, 2013 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm Ivy Writers – Marilyn Hacker and Habib Tengour @ Dellaville Cafe. More info here. 34 Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle 75010 Paris

 Weds April 3, 2013 19:30 April Writer's Meetup AT Apparemment Café 18, rue des Coutures St-Gervais 75003

3 APRIL 7pm  SCOTT HUTCHINS ON A WORKING THEORY OF LOVE AT Shakespeare and Company

Saturday 6^th April  17h-19h “Sound, Impro, Text” Atelier de théâtre en anglais” Niveau intermédaire.  35, rue St. Roch 75001. Veuillez confirmer votre présence au wordsaliveo@gmail.com ou par texto au 06 37 66 27 98

Sunday 7th April @ 12h30-14h30 at the bookstore Shakespeare & Co.  (37 rue de la Bucherie 75005  MAP)   Welsh Poet & Performer, Kate Noakes will be giving an open drop-in Creative Writing Workshop.  It is open to everyone, beginner to prize winner, and is designed to get you writing prose and poetry. Kate provides ideas and writing prompts on a theme each month. It is not a feedback workshop. The workshop cost is a suggested donation of 10 Euros. All you need to do is bring is writing equipment and something to lean on. Kate's website  www.boomslangpoetry.blogspot.com

 

Sunday 7^th April 12-4 pm.  SOS Used book sale.  Orrick Law Offices 31 ave Pierre 1er de Serbie 75016 Paris   Experience first-hand an anglophone used book sale. Come browse.  Great way to stock up on books on every subject: paperbacks 1 euro and hard covers are 2 euros.

Sat & Sun 6^th & 7^th April.  Monthly Used Book Sale at The American Library, 10, rue du General Camou 75007.  Great titles and again low rates.  Books go for 1, 2, or 3 euros.

 

 

SUNDAY April 7 at 8pm : Book Club at Le Carmen!  Bring your friends, bring your sweethearts. And as ever, bring a book you love, and swap it for one someone else has loved. Get ready for a moveable feast of live music! DJs ! & the launch of issue 2 of A Tale of Three Cities, featuring Alain de Botton, Emanuele Fontanesi and Phoebe Collings-James. A hand-numbered, limited edition "journal you'll be proud to have on your shelves" (It's Nice That)  No book, no entry. Til then... AT  Le Carmen 34 Rue Duperré, 75009 Paris, France

Sunday, 7th April 2013 at 7.30 pm MOVING  PARTS presents  presents 3 one-act plays by Gwyneth Hughes: LOST IN THOUGHT, CIVICS LESSON, and FOND FAREWELLS with STEPHANIE CAMPION,  DOUGLAS ENGLISH TANYA GALLAGHER,  RACHEL ROUQUET AT Carr's Pub & Restaurant 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

 

Tuesday 9th April 2013 Signing 6-7pm Presentation 7-8pm   Siobhan Wall, author of QUIET LONDON and QUIET AMSTERDAM will present and sign her new book QUIET PARIS. AT WH Smith 

APRIL 10, 2013, 7pm UPSTAIRS AT DUROC LAUNCHES ISSUE # 14 !! Come join us for an evening of festivities with authors IAN MONK, SARAH RIGGS, CHRISTOPHE LAMIOT ENOS, MARGO BERDESHEVSKY, RUFO QUINTAVALLE At: BERKELEY BOOKS OF PARIS 8 Rue Casimir Delavigne, 75006 Paris, Métro Odéon.

 

Wednesday 10 April 2013, 19:30 Pamela Druckerman, best selling author of Bringing Up Bébé, presents her new book, Bébé Day by Day, a primer on the wisdom of French parenting. AT The American Library in Paris

April 11, 6:30 p.m., Launch of Shades of the Other Shores, a combined artistic effort, that includes series of Ralph Petty's vibrant watercolors and Jeffrey Greene's sequence of prose, prose pieces, and dialogues. This book, number 20 in the prestigious Cahiers Series, is published by Sylph Editions in the UK and distributed in the US by University of Chicago Press. AT  AUP in the Grand Salon, 31 Avenue Bosquet 75007. http://www.sylpheditions.com/sylpheditionscahier.html

Friday 19 April 7:30 pm:  Kathy D'Arcy, Ann Egan, and Cliona O'Connell at the Centre Culturel. Readings will follow a wine reception. Address:  5, rue des Irlandais, 75005.  For further info see www.bradshawbooks.com. 

Tuesday 23 April 2013, 19:30  When African Americans Came to Paris by Joanne and David Burke AT The American Library in Paris

  Wednesday 24 April 2013, 19:30 Charles Glass discusses his new book, Deserter: The Last Untold Story of the Second World War (HarperPress).  AT The American Library in Paris 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris

Thursday 25th April 2013 Signing 6-7pm Presentation 7-8pm  Jennie Fields will present and sign
her novel THE AGE OF DESIRE  based on Edith Wharton's mid-life Parisian love affair.  AT WH Smith

 

 PLAY READINGS AT CARR's

7th April  Gwyneth Hughes "Lost in Thought", "Fond Farewells" and "Civics Lesson" (3 one-act plays)

21st April Yair Packer "Love Her to Death" stage play)

 Contact Stephanie to book a reading of YOUR play

 

 WRITING CLASSES

WICE

WA181 Tips and Strategies for Effective Fiction Writing  18 Apr 2013 2:00 PM • Maison Paroissiale, (Room16), 13 place Etienne Pernet, 75015 Paris; Métro: Félix Faure; Bus: 70 or 88.

WA22 Special Edition Write-In: Guest Author Talia Carner 22 Apr 2013 10:30 AM • WICE 10 rue Tiphaine 75015 Paris; Métro:La Motte-Picquet-Grenelle; Bus: 80.

WY141 Writers in Paris Walks PART 2: The Literary Right Bank1 4 May 2013 10:30 AM • To be announced.

PWU242 The Art of Non-Fiction Writing 24 Jun 2013 9:00 AM • American University of Paris

PWU241 The Art of Novel Writing 24 Jun 2013 9:00 AM • American University of Paris

PWU251 Individual Literary Agent Consultation 25 Jun 2013 12:00 PM • American University in Paris

LA PORTE PEINTE

June 24-28, 2013. Join American author and Huff Post blogger Ann Tashi Slater for a fiction workshop in lovely Noyers sur Serein. Critique, revision, publishing tips. You'll come away with renewed inspiration and freshly honed writing skills. Tuition is 1000 euros. See La Porte Peinte site for details about this and other classes as well as housing options.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

DEADLINE JUNE 1 THE AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD is given to the best book of the year in English about France or the French-American encounter. The winner of the Award receives a prize of $5,000. He or she is invited to Paris in October, 2013, with air travel and accommodation at the Library’s expense, for an award ceremony and other Library functions, including a public reading and a writing workshop. June 1, 2013 Nominations close. For more information on the eligibility and the nominating process see:

 http://americanlibraryinparis.org/events-programs/american-library-in-paris-book-award.html

 

DEADINE APRIL 7 Gary Lee Kraut is accepting submissions for France Revisited's upcoming "Cranky Resident/Cranky Traveler" issue in which all is not beautiful and tasteful and macaroon-perfect in the City of Light (or elsewhere in France). If you'd like to submit, send a 200-300-word description of your idea or a full text (500-800 words) to francerevisited@aol.com by Sunday April 7. Says Gary: “I'm not interested in accounts of a single bad experience or a specific business you don't care for but in short essays that show what's wrong with the state of architecture or fashion or service or food or whatever you're feeling cranky about. Please share this with fellow cranks who might be interested in submitting. No payment but much glory and a large audience for your crankiness.”

 

Deadline Tuesday April 9 at 11pm Paris time:  France Revisited’s Musical Vignettes Contest.  To Enter Write a 250-400-word a vignette that involves instrumental music in some way and includes the word Paris or France. The Prize Two tickets for Sinfonietta Paris’s April 11 concert will be given for each of the two best vignettes as judged by the editor + publication on France Revisited. What’s a vignette? It’s a short text that focuses on a moment, a scene, a character, an encounter, an idea or a place. It is a snapshot, though perhaps a slightly moving snapshot, a sketch, a brief incident. It can be descriptive, impressionistic, poetic, dreamy…for more info see France Revisited website here

 

and from our friends in Geneva...

 

CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS:  visit Poets&Writers  http://www.pw.org/content/literary_magazines  for updated list of over 800 literary journals, and Mslexia  www.mslexia.co.uk for listings updated weekly.

 

The American Library in Paris is pleased to announce the 2013 Book Award, with Julian Barnes, Adam Gopnik and Diane Johnson as judges. This new award honors the most distinguished book of the year in English about France or the French-American encounter. Nominations accepted until June1.  bookaward@americanlibraryinparis.org 

 

New Rivers Press is accepting submissions for American Fiction, Volume 13, twenty previously unpublished stories (up to 10,000 words), deadline June 15, www.newriverspress.com

 

Weave Magazine welcomes submissions of 3-5 poems, fiction and nonfiction (up to 3,000 words), flash fiction (up to 1000 words, drama in one act or monologue (up to 4,000 words).  Closing date May 31.  www.weavemagazine.net

 

The Dublin Review is a quarterly magazine of essays, memoir, fiction, and reportage, and is open to submissions of previously unpublished fiction and nonfiction. www.thedublinreview.com

 

Poetry Review is the Poetry Society’s internationally acclaimed poetry magazine published quarterly. Accepts up to 6 poems at any one time. www.poetrysociety.org.uk

 

The 2013 Sonora Review Essay Contest is currently underway! Dinty W. Moore, editor of Brevity Magazine and author of Between Panic and Desire (winner of the Grub Street Book Prize for Nonfiction), will serve as the judge. http://brevity.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/2013-sonora-review-essay-contest/

 

Bellevue Literary Review’s annual prizes recognize exceptional writing about health, healing, illness, the body and the mind, fiction/poetry/nonfiction, deadline July 1, submit on line, www.blreview.org

 

Call for submissions for the Mamilla Poetry Festival, A Dialogue with Memory, 7-9 September 2013, in Ramalah and Jerusalem, organized by ARCH (Alliance to Restore the Cultural Heritage in the Holy city of Jerusalem) in cooperation with the Mahmoud Darwish Foundation and Museum. For guidelines and submission forms, http://is.gd/mamilla.   For more info:   http://www.archjerusalem.org

 

 

Jessica McCann, author of All Different Kinds of Free, on the story of Margaret Morgan, a free woman of color kidnapped and sold into slavery

I first met Jessica McCann, the author of All Different Kinds of Free, in Tempe, Arizona at the excellent Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference which brought together talented writers in fiction, non-fiction, mystery, YA, childrens and sci-fi  to name but a few. After a passionate chat about her  (true) story of a freeborn black woman kidnapped into slavery,  I knew I had to interview her.  Winner of the Freedom in Fiction Prize with nearly 100 five star reviews on Amazon,  All Different Kinds of Free is Jessica's debut novel.

A Paris Writers News interview

 

Jessica McCann, author of All Different Kinds of Free

 

Laurel Zuckerman: What inspired you to write All Different Kinds of Free?

Jessica McCann: I was editing a textbook on the U.S. Supreme Court justices and the case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 1842, stood out. It overturned the conviction of a bounty hunter who had kidnapped Margaret Morgan, a free woman of color, and sold her into slavery. The case was a pivotal in the nation's history and was one of the first sparks of contention that led to the Civil War. Yet, the case summary made little mention of Margaret herself or the hardships she suffered. That made me curious to learn more about her and inspired me to tell her story.

How did you research it?

Initially, I intended to write a nonfiction book about Margaret. This was more than 10 years ago, and information was not as readily available on the Internet as it is today. I spent a lot of time at the law library at Arizona State University researching the court case. The online newspaper archives through my local library were an enormous help. I also hired a genealogist in Maryland to dig through the local historical society archives, which were not available digitally, to find information about Margaret and the family who had owned her parents.

What were the biggest challenges you faced?

Sadly, there was very little documented information  about Margaret, either before or after her kidnapping. When I realized I did not have enough to write a nonfiction book, I shelved the project for a couple of years and brooded. One day I decided I couldn't let her story go untold, and I began work to write a fictional account of Margaret's life and the court case that changed the nation.

How close did you stay to historical sources?

For the court case, I stuck as close to the historical record as possible, even quoting the transcript from the oral arguments, which is now available online. To fill in the blanks of Margaret's life, as well as to add color and depth to the many fictional supporting characters throughout the book, I turned to an enormous pile of nonfiction books including testimonials, letters and diaries from other slaves during that time. I also read books about the everyday life of people in the north and the south, and books about popular culture, slang and occupations of the 18th century.

What was the most surprising thing you learned?

While I was researching Washington, D.C., I learned that slave auctions were regularly held there. I knew, of course, that slavery and auctions were common practice throughout the South. But I was truly shocked to learn that such activity took place in my nation's capital, even at that time.

What are your hopes for the book?

First and foremost, I wanted to tell a compelling, entertaining and enlightening story. So I hope I achieved that. My hope is also that people will read it, that they'll be touched in a positive way by Margaret's story and courage in the face of adversity, and that they'll feel compelled to share her story with others.

When did you first start writing?

I've been writing professionally since my senior year of high school. My experience is pretty diverse, from magazine writing and editing, to corporate and nonprofit communications, to copywriting and copyediting. I began dabbling with fiction writing about 10 years ago.

How did you hone your craft?

Practice, practice, practice. I've worked with a number of talented editors throughout my career who have helped me improve my writing and broaden my skill set. I've worked as a fulltime freelance writer for nearly 15 years now, and that can be brutal profession. You have to have thick skin and be able to take all critiques of your writing with an open mind. That's a skill set in and of itself. And developing that helped prepare me for the challenges that come with a fiction writing career.

What is the writers' community like in Arizona?

We have a vibrant writing community here. It includes many genre-specific and general writing groups and chapters of  national organizations, as well as large annual events like the Desert Nights, Rising Stars writers conference hosted by Arizona State University and the Tucson Festival of Books held at the University of Arizona in the southern part of the state. There really are a lot of organized opportunities throughout the year to meet with other writers, talk about the writing life, compare notes and compare war stories. You can be as social or a solitary as you'd like, depending upon where you are in your own writing journey.

Who is your favorite writer?

I get asked that a lot, and I can never come up with just one name. John Steinbeck and Mark Twain are iconic American writers for whom I have enormous respect. I also enjoy novels by Sandra Dallas, a contemporary who writes historical fiction based in the American West. A few recent debut novelists have also impressed me. Australian author M.L. Steadman blew me away with her debut, The Light Between Oceans, as did Alaskan author Eowyn Ivey with her debut, The Snow Child.

How do you use social media?

Unlike many authors, I don't blog very often. I do update my website each month to keep it fresh, including information about books I've enjoyed, links to recent articles I've written, and that sort of thing. I do enjoy Twitter and check in there nearly every day. It has been a fun way to meet fellow writers and readers, share ideas, and learn about great new books. Goodreads has been another social media site that I enjoy and, again, I've met some interesting folks with shared reading interests there.

What are you working on now?

In addition to my freelance work, I'm deep in a draft of my second historical novel. This book is set in the 1930s, in the Dust Bowl of the midwestern United States. I am fascinated by the "black blizzards" of that era, monstrous dust storms that would black out the sun and could last for days. Even more, I'm fascinated by the people who lived there during that time and how they summoned up the fortitude to tough it out. I spent a couple of years researching and developing character profiles. Now I'm writing and waiting  to see  how the story unfolds.

  ***

Bio:  Jessica McCann, a professional freelance writer and novelist, lives with her family in Phoenix, Arizona. Her debut historical novel, All Different Kinds of Free, was awarded the Freedom in Fiction Prize and is available in trade paperback, ebook and audio. Jessica loves chatting about books at her website (http://www.jessicamccann.com) and on Twitter (@JMcCannWriter).

 

 Additional links:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVzltSIgwio

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUhDpJGQhu0

 

Paris Literary Events, Readings and Workshops March 2013

This month, news from Marilyn Hacker, Douglas Kennedy, Harriet Rochefort, Cécile David-Weill, Alfred Corn, Jennifer K. Dick, Will Inrig, Kate Noakes, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Dot Devota, Brandon Shimoda, Zachary Schomburg,  Jenny Colgan , Roger Hoeberichts, Roderick Ford,  Angela Bartie, Eleanor Bell, John Calder, Jim Haynes, Kate Stables, Lauren Elkin, Joanna Walsh,John Baxter, Victoria Zackheim, Thomas Gatus, Stephen Dau, Anne Marsella, Rosa Rankin-Gee, Gerald Fleming, Jeffrey Green, Harriet Lye, William Powers, and the Young Authors Fiction Festival. (update in progress, more to follow)

 

 

New interviews with Paris Writers

 

Stuart Nimmo on Perilous Moon, Occupied France 1944 The End Game

Berna Huebner, editor of I Remember Better When I Paint, on improving care for people with Alzheimer's

Peter Silverman, author of Leonardo's Lost Princess, on discovering a masterpiece

Barbara Navarro, author of Amazon Rainforest Magic, on the Yanomami, indigenous peoples and art

 

New Books

Hemingway's France: Images of the Lost Generation by Winston Conrad

The Suitors by Cécile David-Weill

The Perfect Meal: In Search of the Lost Tastes of France by John Baxter

 

 

Selected Literary Events in Paris

(for more events see the links on the right sidebar!)

 March 1,  7 pm : an exceptional evening of poetry and discussion with Marilyn Hacker and Alfred Corn, two major American poets and translators.  The event will be moderated by another highly accomplished poet and professor, Jennifer K. Dick.  Will Inrig will be welcoming the Paris community.  Refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase.  This event will be held at the American University of Paris: 7 p.m. in the Grand Salon, 31 avenue Bosquet, 75007.

March 3 Sunday: 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm  Open Reading @ La Générale

A new reading series, the first Sunday of every month, in Sévres (Métro 9, Pont de Sévres) at the famous artists collective La Generale (directly on the other side of the bridge, next to the Musée de Ceramique) beginning at 6:30-7 p.m.

March 3 Sunday: 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm  Paris Lit Up Writing Workshop @ Shakespeare and Company  Into the Light – join Kate Noakes for a themed writing workshop looking forward to lengthening days and banishing the dark.

March 4, 7 pm: John Baxter on The Perfect Meal @ Shakespeare and Company, Paris

March 7 Paris Lit Up Open Mic @ Culture Rapide Thursday: 7:30 pm – 11:00 pm

March 10 7:30 pm: Thomas Gatus : "The Timely Death of Rudolph Bloc" (screenplay in English) @  Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris (métro Tuileries) Time : all readings start promptly at 7.30 pm

March 11, 7 pm: An evening of Oulipo with Lauren Elkin and Joanna Walsh @ Shakespeare and Company, Paris

 Wednesday 13 March 2013 19:30    Evenings with an Author: William Powers, Hamlet's Blackberry @The American Library in Paris

Saturday 16 March 2013 11:00 - 13:00    Writing Workshop with Victoria Zackheim @The American Library in Paris

March 18, 7pm: International Writer's Conference Revisited: Edinburgh, 1962 editors Angela Bartie and Eleanor Bell talk with the original Conference organisers - pioneering publisher John Calder and seminal arts figure Jim Haynes - about their memories of the ground-breaking 1962 International Writers' Conference. @ Shakespeare and Company, Paris

March 18 7pm. THE BIG PARIS LAUNCH for Lisa Pasold and Jennifer K Dick and visit with local Montmartre artist Nassim Al-Amin in the lovely home-gallery space "Chez Grace".  Lisa Pasold"s most recent book is ANY BRIGHT HORSE. Her first book of poetry WEAVE, was hailed as a masterpiece by Geist.  Her second book of poetry, A BAD YEAR FOR JOURNALISTS, was nominated for an Alberta Book Award. The Globe and Mail called this new poetry collection "critical, darkly funny and painstakingly lyrical."  Her debut novel,RATS OF LAS VEGAS, was described as "enticing as the lit-up Las Vegas strip and as satisfying as a winning hand at poker" by The Winnipeg Free Press. As a journalist, Lisa has published articles in newspapers and magazines such as The Globe and Mail, The Chicago Tribune, The National Post, Billboard Magazine and The San Francisco Chronicle. She has also written for guidebooks such as Fodor's, Time Out, and Michelin.  Jennifer K Dick's books include "Fluorescence" (University of Georgia Press, 2004), "Circuits" (Corrupt Press, 2013) and the eBook "Enclosures" (BlazeVox eBooks, 2007) as well as 3 chapbooks (Betwixt from Corrupt Press, 2012, Tracery from Dusie Press, 2012 and Retina/Rétine from Esteppa editions, 2005) and inclusion in 6 anthologies--most recently 12x12: Conversations in Contemporary Poetry and Poetics (Univ of IA Press). She is also the co-editor with Stephanie Schwerter of "Transmissibility and Cultural Transfer: Dimensions of Translation in the Humanities" (Ibidem Verlag, Stuttgart, 2012) and a poetry editor for the Amsterdam-based lit mag VERSAL. For more, see Jennifer's blog  ARTIST Bio forthcoming--There will be an expo by Nassim Al-Amin for the event and on March 16-17--check out the Chez Grace Meetup space for info on that.  AT: chez Grace, 46 rue des Abesses, 75018, 3rd floor, FB event announcement at: https://www.facebook.com/events/382664958508080/

March 19 7:30 pm Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Dot Devota, Brandon Shimoda and Zachary Schomburg with translations into French of their works by Virginie Poitrasson, Jacques Rebotier, Paul and Martin Richet (tbc). The reading will take place at DELAVILLE cafe, 34 blvd Bonne Nouvelle, 75010 Paris, M° Bonne Nouvelle at 19h30 IVY WRITERS

March 19 Signing from 6-7pm, Reading from 7-8pm Jenny Colgan will present and sign her book THE LOVELIEST CHOCOLATE SHOP IN PARIS @ WH Smith (To RSVP, please send an email with your complete contact information to books(at)whsmith.fr with 'RSVP - Jenny Colgan Event' as the message's subject. You will NOT receive a confirmation, but your name will be added to our guest list.)

Wednesday 20 March 2013 19:30    Evenings with an Author: John Baxter, The Perfect Meal @The American Library in Paris

March 20, 3 pm: Children's Hour with Kate Stables. Music, rhythm and stories for kids: Bring your children (2-6 year-olds, siblings welcome too) to the library at Shakespeare and Company for an hour of music, songs and stories in English (for all nationalities, even those who don't speak English). Led by the magic Kate Stables, mum and singer/songwriter from This is the Kit, this lovely event is fast becoming an institution. There will be instruments to play and a lot of noise to make! Four euros donation appreciated. @ Shakespeare and Company, Paris

Friday 22 March 2013 19:00 - 21:00  Songwriting with Roger Hoeberichts @The American Library in Paris

March 22 7:30 pm Arts in Paris presents reading with authors Stephen Dau, Anne Marsella, Rosa Rankin-Gee; poets Gerald Fleming, Jeffrey Greene and editor/writer Harriet Lye. @ Martha’s Place, 26 rue du Chalet 75010 Porte Bronze

Saturday 23 March 2013 17:00 - 18:00 Teen Writing Group @The American Library in Paris

March 24  7:30pm : Roderick Ford : "Tenebrae" (stage play in English) @ Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris (métro Tuileries) Time : all readings start promptly at 7.30 pm

Tuesday 26 March 2013 19:30    Trends Shaping Education 2013 @The American Library in Paris

Thursday 28th March - 6-8pm Douglas Kennedy presents his new novel book Five Days on its publication date at WH Smith! Signing: 6-7pm. Presentation: 7-8pm. From 'the absolute master of love stories with heart-stopping twists' (The Times), FIVE DAYS is a compelling novel about how life can change with one brief encounter. Kindly RSVP on WH Smith's Facebook page or by emailing books(at)whsmith.fr. 

MARCH 29, 2013 AT 6:30 PM  Harriet Welty Rochefort, author of three books about the French, will speak to us about her latest work, JOIE DE VIVRE : Secrets of Wining, Dining, and Romancing like the French. PAN Book Talk Paris 7Free for PAN members, 5€ for non-members To sign up please contact Mary Ann Rivet at marivet@noos.fr .

 

Call for submissions

Fiction Open. First place: $2,500 and publication in Glimmer Train. Deadline: March 31.Open to all writers. Any story that has not appeared, nor is scheduled to appear, in a print publication is welcome. Winners and finalists will be announced in the June 1 bulletin, and contacted directly one week earlier. Complete writing guidelines.

Monday 01 April 2013 - 2013 Young Authors Fiction Festival - Deadline for submissions

Stuart Nimmo on Perilous Moon, Occupied France 1944 The End Game

When Neil Nimmo hauled back on the joystick to point the nose of his RAF Lancaster bomber into the night sky on April 10, 1944, the average life expectancy for RAF bomber crew was just two weeks. Neil would be shot down over France that night., Along with the crews of six other Lancasters in a short but lethal airborne massacre, 38 international Allied airmen would be killed - and all by one man, Luftwaffe night fighter pilot Hauptman Helmut Bergmann. 

In Perilous Moon: Occupied France 1944, Neil Nimmo's eldest son Stuart Nimmo tells the story of two determined, skilled young pilots at the moment when their lives crossed in war. It is a remarkable work of research and of memory by a son in an honest and beautifully illustrated attempt to understand what RAF bomber crews went through, and what it was that they were fighting: he discovers the complexities of fractured Occupied France and the deadly, but crumbling world of the Luftwaffe pilot who shot his father down.

For most of his life Stuart Nimmo has been a photographer, a cameraman, a BBC film editor, producer, director, and a documentary writer. But until he tackled his father’s incredible story, not an author - this is his first book.

A Paris Writers News interview

___

 

Laurel Zuckerman: When did you start thinking about this book?

Stuart Nimmo: Well, a long time ago, I wasn't much more than seven years old I think!

Laurel Zuckerman: As your father told you the story?

Well yes, ... He told it just once when we were children – like my two brothers I was spellbound, it was enthralling - to us it was simply a huge adventure story. I guess that from then on I tried to persuade him to write it down, but he didn’t - or rather I thought he hadn’t. Many decades later, when he went down with Parkinson’s disease and became very ill, we discovered that over the years he had actually been trying to write the story, it was on odd pieces of paper, quite literally the backs of envelops and so on. But it was fitful and sparse, there were many big gaps. Neil became a very great photographer, but writing this story rather defeated him. I think it reminded him of a highly traumatic experience.

 I read and re-read his notes, put them into chronological order, researched that period, and then tackled the project with him as I would a broadcast documentary. I sat in his hospital room, chatted and listened to him, gently asked questions, opened the story up, encouraged him on and fleshed it out. I took notes and audio recordings and typed it all up.  It took weeks, but it was a wonderful thing to do with him at the end of his life. Anyway, we both found it rather better than discussing price of grapes!

It was hard work at times because of all the involuntary speech pauses so common to late-stage Parkinson's sufferers, but in transcribing those recordings and removed the pauses and re-starts I discovered something very important, I found that what he was saying was perfectly clear and lucid; an important lesson to learn about Parkinson's sufferers, as by then even his Dr's and nurses were talking at him or over him; they were talking down to him as if he were demented - he wasn't at all.

Eventually my father died and I went back to doing a great deal of research about what was happening at the time. Many great historians have written about that period of course; so I just “marked” key events and set about finding little known or forgotten stories from that period. That was demanding, but as it turned out very rewarding as that information was there to be found and really helped to place Neil’s experiences.

photo: Nimmo Collection A German foraging patrol has helped itself to everything including the farm coffee pot.

 

When was your father shot down?

It was the night of 10th-11th of April 1944.  One should remember that the RAF losses that winter of 43/ 44 had been horrendous. Just a few days before, (March 30/31) the RAF suffered its greatest WWII disaster, one way and another they lost over a hundred heavy bombers on the infamous Nuremberg raid. At that stage the life expectancy for RAF crew was down to almost nil. On being rapidly posted to the decimated 101 squadron, Neil found that even the sheets at his billet hadn't been changed; many of the previous pilot's personal things were still there. My father wasn't really expected to last you see, not for more than a few days. Electronics had much to do with it; the Luftwaffe had a key secret weapon.  Brutally speaking there were many more urgent things to attend to than clean sheets, and the horror is that they were right as after a brief spell of stormy, unflyable weather Neil and his crew were shot down on their second sortie. However, when he was shot down, and somehow escaped, it was just a few weeks before D-Day, the German secret would be discovered and everything was to change.


Did he receive much help from the French while evading the Nazis?

Yes he did, and that's interesting really, if one extrapolates the figures very many, aircrew who parachuted into Occupied France and avoided capture found help of some sort, often from farmers and peasants who didn't really consider themselves to be "Résistants" at all. I strongly susspect  that this sort of brave help has been seriously underestimated. There were a remarkable number of people who knew that they risked the Gestapo and a terrible end if the airman was caught and made to talk, but they were still willing to help.

 A day or so after my father Neil was shot down he spotted and made contact with a couple of farm labourers. He was wondering whether to approach them when the younger of them spotted him first. The two workers ambled over the field into bushy scrub, as if they were to have a lunch break, and called Neil over. They gave him clothes, boots, their food and their bottle of wine, (it was the first time my father ever tasted wine in his life!)  These two farmers helped Neil to bury his RAF kit, warned him that the area was crawling with Germans looking for resistance escapees as well as surviving RAF aircrew.  They explained that the RAF had bombed Amiens prison and a lot of resistance prisoners had escaped or were killed and that nearby Amiens housed a big Gestapo and SS HQ at the city's Winter Circus. These two farm workers risked a great deal to help Neil on his way - but they weren’t "in the resistance” as such.

Neil was helped by other ordinary country folk too. I’m not for a moment underestimating how bad so many of the French were, there were plenty of French Nazi zealots, real killers and anti-Semites, I deal with them in Perilous Moon. French on French denunciation became endemic to the point where even the Germans were really shocked by what the French were prepared to do to each other. In fact in the end, some who hid my father were also known collaborators who were by now playing both ends at once, “Changing their coats” as the French say! Neil felt that roughly a third of the French were pro-Ally, a third actively pro-Axis and quite the most dangerous third that simply blew with the wind - looking after themselves at all times.

photo: Nimmo Collection The day after Paris fell – this was their only victory parade it’s on the Avenue Foch. The other parades that one sees are changing of the guard - often on the Champs Elysées.

During your talk at WH Smith in Paris, you mentioned that RAF pilots had been told that if shot down in France they should seek help from priests, prostitutes and cheminots - railway workers.

Yes... But not necessarily in that order!   My father eventually did contact a cheminot - a stationmaster who turned out to run a resistance cell at a hamlet called Souplicourt. Neil went to earth there and was taken care of by this cell until he was passed on into central Paris, (it always has been safer to hide in the hornet's nest than in sparsely populated areas). Neil then witnessed quite extraordinary things going on as many French changed sides, he received wonderful help and refuge with Lucien Royez a fearless Paris garage owner, and when, in August 1944, Paris was finally liberated Neil was able to return to England to continue the war as an RAF Mosquito pilot..

He went straight back to flying bombers after he got back to England?

Yes he did, the war was far from over. He asked to be posted to Pathfinders... and there’s a story and a half... his final raid of the European war was as part of a raid to bomb Hitler's “Eagle's Nest” at Berchtesgaden.

Your book is actually the story of two men: your father and the Nazi pilot who shot him down. Who was this German pilot?

He was a 23-year-old NJG 4 night fighter pilot who came from the much-battered Ruhr. At this time Hauptman Helmut Bergmann was based at Juvincourt, just north of Reims - things weren't going at all well there. By March 31, 1944 RAF Bomber Command may have been all but wiped out, but the Luftwaffe was in terrible shape too, they were much shorter of raw materials and supplies. The supply chain was what my father had been bombing that night. Neither the US nor the UK realised just how run down the Luftwaffe was.

photo Bergmann: collection Nimmo

How did you get access to Bergmann’s papers?
I was positively driven to find out whom this pilot really was, I eventually discovered that his name was Bergmann, but that was it. But then I had the luck of the devil, I was getting my computer in order one evening when I came across a link that I didn’t recognised, it was to a ‘Helmut Weitze’ in Hamburg. I was about to delete it but opened it instead to find that this Herr Weitz had just advertised Helmut Bergmann’s original papers and photographs for sale at 30,000 euros.

For papers? Was he famous?

Yes, 30,000 euros for his 3rd Reich and personal papers and several photograph albums!  You see, that night Bergmann had shot down seven Lancasters in just 46 minutes by using a rather old fashioned method. He was in fact a Nazi and so was immediately showered with decorations and used for propaganda purposes. So while he was a minor ace, he was known. His extensive collection was considered exceptional and had only just come onto the market for the first time. So yes, I was to discover that it was very collectable.

Was finding these papers strange for you? 

Yes, you are right, it was very strange indeed, a thrill and unpleasant at the same time – very odd. I contacted Helmut Weitz, told him I was working on my father’s story and had been searching for papers on Bergmann, but that a) I couldn’t pay 30,000 euros for them, and b) I would not want to own them in any case, but I’d give a lot to briefly see and examine them. Weitz wrote a charming letter back inviting me to bring a scanner and camera to Hamburg and to copy whatever I needed. “But” he said,  “be quick! The papers are sure to sell soon...” And they did, rapidly disappearing back off the public radar.

However, before that happened I took a rapid day trip to Hamburg and walked into HW’s gallery, to find that it was full of SS uniforms, and elderly gentlemen searching through Nazi medals. One of them went puce when he heard my British accent, but Helmut Weitz was charm itself - his own father had been captured at Starlingrad and not released by the Russians until 1955.

Herr Weitz brought out three milk crates full Bergmann’s memorabilia... that was extraordinary.
It was very, very odd indeed to handle the original documents, particularly those carefully typed reports explaining exactly how Helmut Bergmann shot my own father and crew down.   As I went through Bergmann's original photographs, what I'd suspected was confirmed: German airmen were swapping photographs, sharing cameras and taking photographs for one another.

I was able to compare RAF papers with Bergmann’s and to come up with exactly what had happened to all seven Lancasters that night. The book is able to say what happened to each of the crews; some from Australia, some from New Zealand and some Canadian, it was all very international. Even my father's Lancaster had a Canadian navigator and Australian bomb aimer his Lancaster was fitted with Rolls Royce engines but made by Packard Detroit.

Did you contact the families?

Yes, I did... some of them. Talking to a family member where their father had died that night was difficult. One nice woman's father, Eric Munslow, had been one of my father's crew… he didn't survive. The tragedy is that his only child (this woman) had yet to be born and so she and her father never met... I knew what had happened, but I couldn’t tell her anything she would actually want to hear, it was heartbreaking.

photo Rafle at Church (collection Nimmo)

What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?

Weaving it all together, I thought it would be interesting to tackle it in the same way that one approaches making a TV documentary, but the end of the book was difficult, this is where my editor Anita Baker was so invaluable, everyone needs an editor's input, it's a must.  At first, I felt that my father’s story might simply make a chapter in someone else’s book, or simply be something for the family. But when I found the Bergmann collection, I knew that it had become a very different matter. The question then was how to weave Bergman and Neil’s stories together without interrupting one or the other?  I thought that period images would help, but where on earth to find them?  They didn’t exist in France, in the end I hunted Germany for photos taken privately by German airmen and soldiers and bought them from German dealers (who really helped me). I suppose I’ve spent the last 2 ½ years on choosing the photographs and pruned them down to over 200 using the original 1940s prints or negatives. 

 Could you have written this book twenty years ago?

I doubt it. What's changed is that the Internet arrived. But you have to treat the Net with great caution, just use it for possible leads, there can be very useful information out there but it has to be to be thoroughly checked, I was very careful about that.

What are your hopes for the book?

I hope it’s read and understood for what it is. Hitler was an absolute monster, but I tried to be scrupulously fair, objective in the way the BBC taught me to be. I want to know why people followed people like Hitler, and why and how Bergmann became the Nazi he undoubtedly was.    

As a producer, I also think that in the right hands this book would make a fabulous period film.

photo: Nimmo Collection What on earth? German police with French policement in a pram!

Will the book be translated into German?

I do hope so, and into French, German and French friends have read it in English, they tell me that they find the French (or German) and British side of the story new to them and how the French and British then interacted fascinating.

You've done a lot of work in photography and film before this. What’s the craziest story you ever shot?

Oh Laurel!  Well yes, you are right,  there have been plenty of crazy moments, [shooting] from the cable roller cage above the top of a cable car while it’s travelling up the mountain is quite exhilarating, I could get hooked on that.  And helicopter work can be special. On one occasion I was shooting above Monte Carlo for the Monegasque government and needed to shoot down in a tightish spiral (which meant that the helicopter was actually flying pretty well on its side while I was sitting on the floor [of the helicopter] with no door, and my legs dangling out in space (while I faced straight down). It went well, but on landing I just stepped out unhindered and found out that the flight engineer hadn't actually attached me to the helicopter at all... He'd made a mistake and attached me firmly to myself [laughter]. When you think about it centrifugal force very nearly prevented my father from jumping from his spiralling Lancaster. The very same force actually prevented me from falling out of the helicopter - it saved my life, and an awful mess 2000 feet below in Monaco...

 ___

Author Stuart Nimmo in Paris

Stuart Nimmo started in television at 16 years old and has worked as a a film editor, photographer, producer, director, screenwriter and cameraman for most of his life, but not until he tackled his father’s incredible story of being shot down over France, did he tackle his first book.  He is is Neil Nimmo's son

 Perilous Moon, Occupied France 1944 The End Game by Stuart Nimmo is available at W.H. Smith in Paris and other fine bookstores world wide, as well as on amazon.

Praise for Perilous Moon 

 Steve Donoghue, Managing Editor Open Letters Monthly Arts and Literature Review http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/book-review-perilous-moon/

 Rob Hardy, Literary review The Dispatch Columbus Ohio http://www.cdispatch.com/robhardy/article.asp?aid=21582#ixzz2I4JP2bJd

 News about the book at www.Perilous-Moon.com

 

Berna Huebner, editor of I Remember Better When I Paint, on improving care for people with Alzheimer's

Berna Huebner's documentary film I Remember Better When I Paint, broke new ground in exploring how art can improve the lives of people with Alzheimer'. Berna and her co-producers have been advocating tirelessly in the past three years in the Alzheimer's community, screening the film in cities and on TV stations throughout the world.  This led to the publication of a book, I Remember Better When I Paint: Art and Alzheimer's: Opening Doors, Making Connections.  Atlantic Monthly and National Geographic recently featured I Remember Better, and this week the innovative @Irememberbetter twitter account is up for a prestigious social media "Shorty Award" fueled by hundred of nominations from twitter followers around the world. 

We are delighted to have the opportunity to talk with Berna Huebner on advocating for people with Alheimer's.

A Paris Writers News Interview

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Laurel Zuckerman: What inspired you to write I Remember Better When I Paint: Art and Alzheimer's: Opening Doors, Making Connections?

Berna Huebner: This book began with my mother’s experience with Alzheimer’s. It taught me to see how the power of the creative arts can change one’s life, even after memory loss has changed one’s normal ways of responding.  

 When I was trying to connect more effectively with my mother, a life-long artist who was then struggling with severe dementia,  I asked “Mother, do you want to paint”... and to my amazement she responded, “Yes, I remember better when I paint.” These words became the catalyst. Art historian and friend Roberta Katz says the book describes how the worlds of art, science and medicine intersect and how that in my mother’s case “victimization was turned into a victory by engaging with the arts.”

 Who is it for?

This book as well as the information in the resources chapter is for people with Alzheimer's, families, and professionals who use art to turn some of the lights back on for persons with memory loss. I know they can find the inspiration in their own lives like I did with my mother.

What are your hopes for changing how Alzheimer’s is treated?

My hopes are that the power of art as being transformative will be recognized for people with memory loss.

Alzheimer’s is the only disease in the top 10 cause of death without prevention, treatment or cure -- the creative arts are a way to help.

The transformative power of art is still inadequately understood by those afflicted with Alzheimer’s and other forms of memory loss, their families, their caregivers, and the wider medical community. There is still much to be done to educate and advocate for this approach.

Does the book offer any suggestions for caregivers?

Yes! There are many suggestions for how families and caregivers can use art to deal with the reality of dealing with memory impairment. 

• Conduct a bio-psycho-social evaluation of the patient as Dr. Lazarus recommends in Chapter 4.
• Video and other records of the person should be made and preserved before the disease develops too far as Dr. Cohen suggests in Chapter 2.
•  Get help. Because consistent, persistent engagement is the key ingredient for progress and family members may not be able to stay engaged all the time, look for help outside your family. Volunteers at nursing homes and senior centers, art students as described in this book, and practicing artists in the community may be among the available resources.
• Allow time and be persistent. Be prepared for the process to take time. It is obvious from Jenny Graf Sheppard’s story of working with my mother (in Chapter 6) that progress didn’t occur quickly or evenly. In addition, institutional skepticism, even outright opposition, may need to be overcome. Persistence is required.
•  Other tips in the book include create a variety of activities linked to the creative process, adapt your expectations, know that the brain can re-wire and re-learn, and understand the dynamics of Alzheimer’s and memory loss. Painful though that may be, to the decline in lifelong capacities and satisfactions that have characterized the person. Some of the books and websites described in the resource list will help you make this difficult adjustment.

 Your film has been attracting notice throughout the world of Alzheimer’s caregivers – and now beyond with articles in The Atlantic and the National Geographic Science Blogs What is the message that you would like to convey ?

 A key message is how the worlds of art, science and medicine intersect which is conveyed both in the book and in the documentary.  Other messages are well expressed from some of the endorsements about the book: 

 Author and journalist Gail Sheehy has said the creative arts  offer “an entirely new pathway for engaging with a loved one you thought was lost."

Marc Wortmann, CEO of Alzheimer's Disease International notes the book conveys “a message of hope and contributes to changing the way people look at Alzheimer's disease.”

Sam Gandy, M.D., Ph.D. of Mount Sinai Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research shares that "Alzheimer's typically hits memory areas of the brain early while sparing areas responsible for creativity.  Art and music are perfect modalities for stimulating these creativity areas.  This strategy is also an effective way to relieve agitation without sedating drugs” and that the book presents a “comprehensive and compelling account of how the arts can help change the quality of life for people with memory impairment."

And a message of hope well expressed by Yasmin Aga Khan, President, Alzheimer’s Disease International and daughter of actress, Rita Hayworth who had Alzheimer’s: “This is an inspirational story of an artist who finally was able to paint again. The idea is that the creative arts are helpful for people who have Alzheimer's now. It opens a pathway that connects to the non verbal emotional place in the person.”

 I understand social media have been crucial in getting the word out – so much so that your Twitter feed @irememberbetter has been nominated for a Shorty Award. Could you tell us about this award (and where interested readers can vote?)

 Social media, in particular Twitter, has been instrumental in helping to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s and how the creative arts can help people who have the disease. We are dedicated to helping the Alzheimer’s caregiving community, and through Twitter have helped to connect many caregivers from around the world.

 We are humbled that the Hilgos Foundation, created in memory of my mother to advocate the use of creative arts in dementia care, has been nominated for a Shorty Award in the Charity category. 

 The judging panel will choose the recipient of this award from the top six most voted. Voting closes on February 18, 2013 and votes must come from people who are active on Twitter.  If chosen for this award, it will be dedicated to the many Alzheimer’s caregivers and their loved ones with this disease. To win this award which provide much needed awareness of Alzheimer’s and how the creative arts can help.

 Please cast your vote at: http://shortyawards.com/category/charity  We are also humbled to have been recognized as a PayitForwardFriday post on why people should vote for us.

***

About Berna Huebner: 

Berna G. Huebner is the founder of the Hilgos Foundation in Chicago, Illinois which supports and encourages the ongoing process of artistic creation with people who have different forms of dementia including Alzheimer’s. She is the co-director of I Remember Better When I Paint, a 2009 international documentary film which examines the positive impact of art on people with Alzheimer’s and shows how the creative arts can help Alzheimer's patients re-engage in life. Huebner also serves on the Boston University School of Medicine Alzheimer’s Board and is Director of the Center for the Study of International Communications in Paris, France. She is the former Research Director for Nelson Rockefeller when he was Governor of New York and then Vice President.

Barbara Navarro, author of Amazon Rainforest Magic, on the Yanomami, indigenous peoples and art

 

Barbara Navarro and friend

 Barbarro Navarro is a Paris based artist whose decades-long interest in the peoples of the Amazon rain forest inspired her first illustrated book for children,  "Amazon Rainforest Magic: The Adventures of a Yanomami Boy". Based on her experiences with the Yanomami communities living in the jungles of Venezuela and Brazil, Amazon Rainforest Magic relates the journey of Namowë, a thirteen year old Yanomami boy, as he seeks a cure for his baby sister. 

 A Paris Writers News interview

____

Laurel Zuckerman: Where are you from ?

 Barbara Navarro:   Originally I’m from San Francisco, but I’ve been living in Paris since 1977. I first studied art at R.I.S.D. and then got my BFA at San Francisco Art Institute.

  How did you end up in the Amazon rain forest writing a children’s book ?

     For decades, I’ve been interested in knowing why people in subsistence cultures create art. I traveled first to the Dogon people of West Africa to study their végétal pigments, then received University support for obtaining permits from the Venezuelan government to spend time with Yanomami communities to learn more about their painting techniques for body painting and painting on ritual and shamanic implements. I spent several months each winter for twelve years in the Amazon Rainforest. Over the years, I had two exhibitions of my art work (including a burning sculpture performance to protest the ongoing destruction of the Rainforest) in Puerto Ayacucho, the regional capital of the Venezuelan Amazonas state.

 Where did the idea for the book come from ?

      I was so shocked by the degradation of the Rainforest and the lives of the Yanomami when I visited communities in Brazil that it transformed my painting into a more abstract style and I created the first of my (eight so far) burning sculpture performances.

The idea of writing a book for children about the Yanomami and Rainforest issues evolved from my need to speak out about these issues threatening their existence.

 When did you start writing ?

      While I was in Brazil and seeing the devastation myself. The book project took on a life of its own and an urgency.

 How do you write ?  

     It seems to be dreaming itself to me. I help nurture it along, but it’s an irresistible force in my life !

  What was the most suprising thing you discovered writing the book ?

     I’ve been amazed by the way these books seem to inhabit me. I’m woken up in the night by conversations between the protagonist and the shaman or animals speaking and I have to get out of bed to write it down. I have to have a notebook with me everywhere I go.

 How did you get along with the Yanomami ? Will they be able to read your book too ?

      Interestingly, my art created a bond with the Yanomami immediately that has grown over time with return visits to the same communities. Instead of me observing them, they loved observing me drawing and painting. Their generosity in including me in their lives was incredible.

    The book is being published in English and French first, then later in Spanish. The communities that I’m closest to don’t read in any language, not even Yanomami, but the book could be read to them out loud in Yanomami translated from Spanish.

You have a background in art. Did you also do the artwork ?

      Yes !

 Was it difficult to find a publisher ?

      I’m working with a small publisher who specializes in e-books and on-demand printing through Amazon.com and Kindle.

 How are you getting the word out about your book ? Who would you like to reach ?

      People like you ! There’s been a lot of word-of-mouth momentum. This issue is also in the news at the moment because the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest is accelerating and the indigenous peoples affected by that are speaking out.

 What are you working on now ?

     I’m working on the second volume of the series as well as quiz books to accompany the different volumes in English, French and Spanish.

 About Barbara Navarro

Barbara Navarro is a Franco-American artist who has lived in Paris since 1978.  She studied at Rhode Island School of Design and the San Francisco Art Institute. Her exploration of techniques and natural pigments took her originally to West Africa and particularly to the Dogon people of Mali. Over several years, she studied the techniques of traditional « Bogolan » painting. The pigment is  made using a mixture of plants that are dried and crushed and then mixed with mud and applied to canvas dyed an ochre color with boiled bark from the wolo tree . 

Since 1997, voyages to the Amazon Rainforest in Venezuela and in Brazil have informed several series of paintings created while living among the Yanomami. The support used is roughly woven canvas prepared with acrylic medium then textured with a mixture of sand from the river bank and lava. This supple canvas is then rolled and easily transported on expeditions into the Amazon Rainforest. They are  then painted using a mixture of acrylic colors and roucou, the plant-based pigment used by the Yanomami for their ritual paintings. 

Her concern for the ongoing devastation of the Amazon Rainforest has inspired her films and installation projects. Since 2005, she has created a performance and film project « Fire Sculpture » to bring urgent attention to the Rainforest and the indigenous cultures that it sustains. To protest against its continuing destruction, she has been publicly burning her totemic sculptures. These burning sculptures symbolize the degradation of nature and the annihilation of indigenous cultures that depend on the forest for their survival

.

www.barbaranavarro.com

 

Peter Silverman, author of Leonardo's Lost Princess, on discovering a masterpiece that art experts had missed

Meet Peter Silverman January 22 in Paris at the screening of La Princesse Perdue de Léonard de Vinci

 Art collector Peter Silverman has an eye. And it told him that a "German, early 19th century" portrait was not what experts said.  He bet $19,000 on this intuition, and, in a development that stunned the art world, was proved right. Incredibly, he had found a previously unknown drawing by Leonardo da Vinci—an exquisite depiction of Bianca Sforza, rendered 500 years ago. Leonardo's Lost Princess is Peter Silverman's thrilling first person account of the decade-long path to authentication, fraught with opposition and controversy, and ultimately resolved by cutting-edge science and deep scholarship.

Leonardo's Lost Princess has been translated into French and Italian and made into a documentary film, MYSTERY OF A MASTERPIECE which was broadcast in the USA and on Arte. Parisians will have a chance to discover the film and book in the company of Peter Silverman  on January 22 at 7 pm at the Médiathèque Marguerite Duras.  Entry is free and open to all, in what promises to be an exceptional Paris event.   (115, rue de Bagnolet, Paris 20e) 

 I am delighted to present this talk with Peter Silverman, art collector and author. A Paris Writers News Interview

Which do you like better: writing or art collecting?

Art collecting in the daytime, writing at night

How did you develop your "eye" for art?

LOOKING, looking and looking! In museums, churches, auction houses at dealers. And sometimes taking a plunge and buying. When you invest your own money, you learn.

The first time you saw this painting you knew it had been misattributed – something that numerous experts, some of them truly knowledgeable, had missed. How do you explain this?

In this case it was hubris on the part of so-called experts who refused to use simple scientific testing, easily available, to determine the age of the vellum and the pigments. An expert or auction house should and must exercise due diligence when entrusted with a work of art-in the case of the Leonardo that would have meant in the least a simple examination by a qualified restorer.

Why do art historians get so many things wrong? 

There are many fine art historians and their research work, often involving digging through archives etc. often proves invaluable. But this 'book' knowledge must be combined with studying works of art in museums and in situ in churches, collections etc. Art scholars and historians should limit themselves to doing what they do best, research and writing, and leave the delicate process of attribution to those few who have shown they have both the knowledge and the 'eye' to judge a work of art with discernment. And who use the whole gamut of the scientific means available to assist in this delicate task.

What makes a truly great art historian/ expert?

True passion. Unbounded curiosity. Deep study and reflection. And an EYE, without which nothing is possible. And just as in music few have an absolute ear so in art fewer still have a great EYE.

What is the most surprising thing you learned about the art world during this experience?

I was very naive in believing that the world of art insiders would be jubilant and welcome a new work by the greatest of all the masters, Leonardo da Vinci. But I was to have a rude awakening. Ego, jealousy, envy and just plain stupidity blinded many to the overwhelming scientific and art historical evidence! Just as there are still today people out there who refute Darwin and believe in Man's origins from Adam and Eve! Why? Because it fits their convictions. People believe what they want to believe, we have all seen this in our personal relationships.

When did you realize you had a book?

When my agent, Dystel and Goderich, told me so.

How did you write it? 

My agent suggested a co-writer, best-selling author of over 50 books, Catherine Whitney, who, proved truly invaluable as this was my first book. Although my wife and I wrote a number of chapters and provided the facts etc. it was Catherine who showed us how to make it into a readable story.

What challenges did you encounter?

Keeping it factual and not polemic-and especially not pedantic and not boring. I hate boring.

Is it a thriller, a memoir or a book on art history?

All three.

How did you balance the need to provide information and context with the need to keep the story moving?

The story of a painting selling for 20,000 dollars as 19th century German to now being a Leonardo worth perhaps a hundred million had all the elements to excite a reader's interest and curiosity. The bumpy road to authenticating the work contained all the elements of a thriller with a cast of very interesting characters-both heroes and 'villains.' And not a few clowns. So all the elements were intrinsic to make the story into a modern fairy tale-with the added element here of truth being stranger than fiction. So we alternated scenes from the story of the discovery with scenes from Leonardo’s remarkable life and insider tales of the very closed world of art collectors, dealers and Auction houses.

Were there any particular legal considerations (since it’s a true story)?

None whatsoever.

What advice would you give to someone writing about the art world?

Become an 'insider' or else expect to fall short.

How did you find a publisher?

That is the agent’s job. Without a top agent it ain't easy.

Did you ever feel like giving up?

 Why? I’m having the time of my life.

What next for Leonardo's Lost Princess?

A tour of the world’s museums

If you had one expo to see this winter, which would it be?

The Bronze show at the Royal Academy in London, now finished - the show of the decade. Catalogue available. In Paris I loved the impressionism and costume show at Orsay until Jan.20th, as well as the expo, just closed, on the remarkable architect Baltard. He constructed the old Halles and the destruction of which, in 1973, was the greatest case of official State vandalism since the French Revolution!

What are you working on now?

A novel as well as books on historical figures who profoundly changed our world and their pertinence for us today as guiding lights. I will need at least three co-authors.

***

In English:  Leonardo's Lost Princess One Man's Quest to Authenticate an Unknown Portrait byLeonardo Da Vinci by Peter Silverman and Catherine Whitney

Watch the remarkable PBS Nova National Geographic documentary on the authentication of the portrait.

In French: La Princesse Perdue de Leonard de Vinci

In Italian:  La Principessa Perduta di Leonardo

Mardi 22 janvier – 19h FILM La Princesse Perdue de Léonard de Vinci suivi d'une séance de dédicaces avec Peter Silverman, art collector and author of Leonardo's Lost Princess. Médiathèque Marguerite Duras (115, rue de Bagnolet, Paris 20e) - entrée libre -

***

From The Independent by Mathilda Battersby January 21, 2013 :"It is the most-visited, the most written about and the most parodied work of art in the world but the ‘uncatchable smile’ that makes Leonard da Vinci’s Mona Lisa so special is not unique according to experts.cAnother painting, La Bella Principessa, which predates da Vinci’s most famous work, also has a smile which seems to change according to the viewpoint of the onlooker.Academics suggest that the technique which would later give his most famous subject her mysterious allure was first executed on the lesser-known painting by the Renaissance master. read more here

From the Washington Post By T. Rees Shapiro,May 04, 2012 : " To the chagrin of the naysayers, Silverman was able to prove his point beyond a doubt. The drawing’s appraised value is now $150 million. “I had achieved the dream of every collector: to bring to the world a previously undiscovered Master work,” he writes. He also uncovered the history of the portrait and learned the identity of its subject. She was Bianca, the illegitimate daughter of a Milanese duke, and was to be married to the duke’s army commander. Da Vinci created the portrait in honor of the marriage.

Silverman’s book is a fascinating tale with Da Vinci Codesque twists. But one mystery is never quite solved: Who is Peter Silverman? The little we learn about him is that he was a Brooklyn immigrant kid who made it big and now lives in Paris. Readers may finish his book wanting to learn more about the motivations of a man who puts so much effort, and lots and lots of money, into what is in the end a very expensive hobby.  —T. Rees Shapiro