Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Paris Writers News November 2009

This month, new books from Lynn Jeffress, Christopher Vanier, Margo Berdeshevsky, Janet Skeslien Charles, Mark Morrison-Reed, Charles Glass and Ellen Hinsey; literary magazines Five Dials, Seizure, Cerise Press, Versal Magazine, and calls for submissions for Bonjour Paris and AUP’s Paris Atlantic; meet-ups; opening of registration for the Geneva Writers’ Conference and a workshop in erotic writing with Mitzi Szereto…and a strange tale concerning

Tatiana de Rosnay…

 

 

New Books

Lynn Jeffress The Dali Code and Other Paris Stories.

Published by Wild OceanPress in California. "Bizarre and often comic tales mirroring something exquisitely surreal that is absolutely worth knowing. Or not."

 

 

 

 

 

 Christopher Vanier  Caribbean Chemistry

A story of self-discovery, told in language rich enough to eat: breadfruit, breadnut, bamboo, lignum vitae, marouba, weedee, and calabash. Funny and engaging, it speaks of breaking the barriers of identity and finding them again. A rare view of the emigrants tale.  

Christopher has read at the British Institute of Paris and The American Library of Paris. In 2006 he was awarded first prize at the annual WICE Paris Writers Workshop. In the same year he won a fellowship to the Summer Literary Seminar in Kenya.

 

 

Margo Berdeshevsky Beautiful Soon Enough

Winner of FC2's American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize:, "Beautiful Soon Enough" is a collection of hypnotic stories that capture the lives--worldly, sexual, obsessive--of twenty-three arresting women.

The launch for Beautiful Soon Enough  will be at the The Village Voice  Bookshop on  Thursday November 12th, @ 7 pm

 

 

 

 

 

Ellen Hinsey's

Update on the Descent

Update on the Descent is arranged in an extremely sophisticated pattern, alternating Dantean visions, contemporary accounts of torture, and thoughts on our human condition which crystallise into formulae possessing all the depth and darkness of Heraclitus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Janet Skeslien Charles Moonlight in Odessa

Janet will be reading from her acclaimed new novel at the Village Voice on November 5th at 7 pm and at the American Library on November 12th at 7:30.

See my interview with Janet here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charles Glass Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation, 1940 - 1944

'An account of the 2,000 Americans who remained in Paris during the Second World War is rich in intrigue and heroism ... for anyone interested in France during this period it is a fascinating treat.' --Antony Beevor, Daily Telegraph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Morrison-Reed In Between: Memoir of an Integration Baby

a frank personal account of growing up black during the era of the Civil Rights movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New literary magazines

 

Five Dials

Five Dials is a London-based literary magazine, launched by Hamish Hamilton and edited by Craig Taylor (author of One Million Tiny Plays About Britain). The Paris issue was co-edited by Simon Prosser, publishing director of Hamish Hamilton and features hard-hitting investigative reporting into the gritty world of Paris booksellers, as well as fun things by Geoff Dyer, Ali Smith, and Paul Davis, not to mention a fantastic almost-Oulipian poem by Joe Dunthorne.

Download the pdf here!

 

Cerise Press

International journal of literature, arts and culture based in Paris.

November’s issue will focus on contemporary French poetry and photography.

Paris-based/France-based contributors will include Marilyn Hacker, Amina

Saïd, Auxeméry, Olivier Schwartz, Michael Katakis, John Taylor etc.

Open to submissions.

http://www.cerisepress.com

Check out the inaugural issue at: http://www.cerisepress.com/vol-1-issue-1-features

 

Versal Magazine

Call for submissions: A VERSAL CALL

Versal wants your poetry, prose, and art for its eighth issue due out in May

2010. Internationally acclaimed literary annual published in Amsterdam,

bringing together the world's urgent, involved, and unexpected.

See website for guidelines and to submit: http://versal.wordsinhere.com.

Inquiries (only) can be directed to: [email protected].

Deadline: January 15, 2010.

 

Seizure

A new literary magazine! To read or submit, please see: www.seizureonline.com

 

 

2009 New Delta Review Creative Nonfiction Contest

Judge: Peggy Shinner

NDR seeks pieces that activate the compelling bits of “real” life. Prize: $150 and publication in New Delta Review. Finalists will be considered for publication.

$10 submission fee includes option to purchase discounted two-issue subscription to NDR for an additional $10.

For details: http://www.lsu.edu/newdeltareview/New_Delta_Review/CONTESTS.html

 

Paris/Atlantic, the AUP creative publication

Whether you are a poet, photographer, script writer, a lyricist... – To submit, contact: Oona or Saara, and/or to email us at [email protected]

 

 

For more Events and Contests, see Jen Dick’s listing http://parisreadingsmonthlylisting.blogspot.com

 

 

Other Magazines about French culture and living 

 

Bonjour Paris

To submist, please contact Karen Fawcett President Paris New Media, LLC

www.bonjourparis.com

 

Culturekiosque

The European Magazine of Arts, Culture and Ideas Worldwide Paris - London - New York   http://www.culturekiosque.com

 

 

Writers Conferences !

The GenevaWriters' Conference, Feb. 5-7will start accepting registration this month!

Check out their website !

 

Literotica: Erotic Writing with Mitzi Szereto

 Join trendsetting author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto for a weekend erotic writing workshop on the Isle of Wight in southern England..   Friday 13 Nov—Sunday 15 Nov 2009  Cost: GBP ₤75 (Cost includes course only; accommodation is extra.)  Email: [email protected]

http://thegrangebythesea.com

 

 

Fun literary get-togethers

http://www.culturerapide.com/programme

Writers’ meetups  http://www.meetup.com/pariswriters/fr/about/

 

 

In other news: see the Rue 89 article about renowned author Tatiana de Rosnay's struggle to prove her nationality  http://www.rue89.com/cabinet-de-lecture/2009/10/14/tatiana-de-rosnay-rejoint-les-radies-de-la-nation

Sarkozy's advisors fail to protect president from himself

 

There is nothing abnormal about a father’s pride in his son. But when France’s President Sarkozy shocked his own political supporters by engineering his 23 year old son’s meteoric rise, where were the wise men to advise him against such a flagrant and indefensible case of nepotism? Even Richard II had at least one courageous advisor! 

 King Sarkozy of France betrayed by cowardly councilors? 

And when President Sarkozy dithered Hamlet-like over the fate of his wife’s friend and protégé, Fréderic Mitterand, where was his brain trust to remind him that Culture Ministers who publish in 190,000 copies (however sensitive and well-written) personal accounts of sex tourism in exotic Bangkok are liabilities? Gay—fine. Leftist—great! But sex for money with “garcons”—truly not cool.

 

And how could the math mavens let President Sarkozy propose a “national bond” for unclear purposes with the French budget deficit already soaring towards 9 % and no serious spending cuts in sight? (Why does brilliant Finance Minister Christine Lagarde say nothing?)

 

 

President Sarkozy is a man of tremendous talents. But, like many gifted and ambitious politicians, he is flawed. Good advisors tell truth to power. Sycophants, yes-men and cowards ensure the great man’s downfall.

Guaino!  Levitte !  Hortefeux ! 

 

Will no one who loves the King speak out?

---

To see Jean Sarkozy's qualifications to run a billion dollar entity, click here.

Bike paths finally making headway around Paris !!!

After years of hesitation, the Val de Marne has finally gotten serious about bikes. The goal: multiply by seven the number of trips by bike!

In the towns east of Paris which comprise the Val de Marne, 70% of trips are under two kilometers.  That’s just a few minutes by bike. For these short distances, why not encourage people to ride instead of drive?

That’s exactly what Val de Marne’s Conseil General aims to do. The new “Plan de déplacement” (transportation plan) ramps up the bike option:

·     450 kilometers of bike paths by 2020

·     15 kilometers of NEW bike paths each year

·     Obligatory bike paths included in plans to modify departmental roads

·     Financial support for creating 76 new Velib station in Paris’ eastern suburbs

·     Threefold budget increase for bicycle—related projects

The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe (PS), pushed and supported by the Greens, set off a transportation revolution in Paris by shifting urban space away from cars and towards buses and bikes. Velib in Paris has been, despite massive vandalism, a raging success.

This movement is now spreading to the suburbs (banlieue). Christian Favier (PC), president of the Conseil General du Val de Marne has thrown his considerable political weight into alternative forms of transportation.

The prospect of a region-wide network of bike paths linking Paris to the suburbs and the suburbs to each other is a joyous one. Vive le vélo! Vive la République!

Special treat:

UTUBE of Danny MacAskill on his bike

Two rape cases shake France

While intellectuals and elites demand freedom for artistic genius

Roman Polanski, France mourns the rape and murder of a jogger by a repeat sex offender.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, French culture minister Frédéric Mitterand, French intellectual extraordinaire Bernard Henri Levy and a bevy of top French artists have called for Roman Polanski’s release following his arrest by Swiss authorities on a thirty year old rape charge. Polanki had pleaded guilty to drugging and having sex with a 13 year old but then jumped bail and fled the USA before sentencing. (see Charles Bremner for an interesting analysis).

Kouchner, a man I usually admire, expressed the French elite attitude perfectly:

"This affair is frankly a bit sinister. Here is a man of such talent, recognized worldwide, recognized especially in the country where he was arrested. This is not nice at all.”

Law, in other words, does not apply to genius.

At the same time as the French elite class articulated its thoughts on criminal justice, a 42 year-old woman out for a jog was raped and murdered by a man who had been previously condemnedto eleven years in prison for rape in 2002 but who was freed on probation in 2007.

This is not the first such case, nor, given lax sentencing and overcrowded prisons, will it be the last.

France has been, and remains, entirely at a loss how to deal with repeat sexual offenders.  Anger at judicial fecklessness is palpable and building among the non-genius, non-elite classes.

It’s like a replay of the USA in the 1970s when headlines were full of repeat rapists and murderers. Charles Bronson “Death Wish” revenge fantasies and Clint Eastwood “Dirty Harry” vigilante films captured the fury of the public who felt unprotected and abandoned by the official system. Harsh, mandatory sentencing was the result in the USA.

Is France about to head down the same road, with a thirty year lag…?