Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Interview with Frances Gendlin on Paris, Moi and the Gang, a Memoir of Sorts

 Laurel Zuckerman talks with Frances Gendlin about memoir and travel writing, as well as Mexico as a writer’s refuge, Saul Bellow, new technologies and her book.: Paris, Moi and the Gang...A Memoir of Sorts

 a Paris Writers News Interview

Ten rules for writing fiction : Margaret Atwood from guardian.co.uk

 1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can't sharpen it on the plane, because you can't take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.

2 If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type.

3 Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.

4 If you're using a computer, always safeguard new text with a memory stick.

5 Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.

6 Hold the reader's attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don't know who the reader is, so it's like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B.

7 You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there's no free lunch. Writing is work. It's also gambling. You don't get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you're on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don't whine.

8 You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.

9 Don't sit down in the middle of the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.

10 Prayer might work. Or reading something else. Or a constant visual­isation of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.

To read the complete article in The Guardian click here.

French President Sarkozy's Top Five Errors That Cost Him the Elections !

 In France's Regional Elections, Nicolas Sarkozy's center right party UMP suffered major losses, in part because the President's supporters abstained from voting at all.

Why?

The financial crisis and recession have hurt governing parties everywhere, but some of the blame clearly goes to President Sarkozy himself. 

Here are five of the biggest mistakes which have hurt his popularity and credibility--most crucially with his own supporters:  

1. Allowing his son to become a candidate to  head EPAD, which runs La Défense France's richest business area.

Prince Jean has not even graduated law school yet. The effort to drop him into a key post as head of France's most important business district made Sarkozy look arrogant and France  like a banana republic. Also, it mortally offended many of Sarkozy's best supporters.

2. Launching a pointless debate on "National Identity"

Why? The French LIKE Sarkozy's promise to get tough with crime and expect him to deliver on it (which he has not yet managed to do.) Why this offensive and distracting sideshow? It hurt feelings and awakened the beast of the Far Right--to absolutely no purpose whatsoever!

3. Appointing Frédéric Mitterand Culture Minister

Poaching the left for talent worked wonders with DSK, Bernard Kouchner and others.  Claiming the Mitterand name was apparently so irresistable that Sarkozy ignored warnings about Mitterand's book La Mauvaise Vie in which he recounts sex tourism with Thai "garçons" (translate that however you like). No problem until Minister of Culture Mitterand attacked the US (still an ally) for demanding extradition from Switzerland (not France)  of genius film-maker Roman Polanski on charges of raping a minor, which he had fled years ago making him a fugitive.  In retaliation, Marine Le Pen read Mitterand's sex tourism with "garçons" passage out loud on TV causing normal French people to question Sarkozy's judgement in having appointed the man in the first place.

4. Encouraging Valérie Pécresse, Minister of Higher Education, to sling mud in a negative campaign that disgusted Ile de France voters.

What a weird, inept, ill-considered campaign we just saw! Sarkozy parachuted party hacks who knew nothing about the local region  into key positions then acted surprized when locals didn't feel like voting. A strange mistake..

5.  Betraying the spirit and the promise of Grenelle.

After a brilliant start in making the environment a centerpiece of this political strategy, Sarkozy abandoned agreed on goals, one after another --clean water, reduction of pesticides, carbon tax. Under pressure from farmers he is reported to have said that he's had enough of ecology!  A major error, one which allows the left to pick up the mantel of saving the environment in a Green-Socialist alliance that Sarko had a good chance of breaking...

Information on the Paris Writers Workshop !

 This just in ! 

The 21^st PWW, organized by WICE: www.wice-paris.org  is scheduled for June 27-July 2, 2010 and hopes that you will be able to join us for an intensive week devoted to honing your craft with a stellar faculty.

Short Story - Sheila Kohler is the author of 7 novels and 3 collections of short stories. Becoming Jane Eyre, her latest novel, not only describes the inner lives of the Brontë siblings, but also the creative process of Charlotte Brontë.

Poetry -- Alice Notley has published 30 collections of poetry. Beginning as a poet of the second generation of the New York School, she has developed a mostly autobiographical stream-of-consciousness style.

Creative Nonfiction -- Mimi Schwartz, the author of five books, most recently, Good Neighbors, Bad Times, Echoes of My Father’s German Village, was a winner of the ForeWord Book of the Year Award in Memoir for 2008 and of the New Hampshire NHWP Outstanding Literary Nonfiction Award.

Novel -- Matt Thorne, judge of the 2008 PWW’s Paris Prize for fiction, is an English writer born in 1974 a who has published seven novels. His second book Eight Minutes Idle, which drew on Thorne's experiences of having worked in a call centre, was published in 1999 and won an Encore Award; his 2004 novel, Cherry, was longlisted for the Brooker Prize.

Early-Bird tuition is 650€ which includes your choice of workshop (meeting Monday through Friday for a total of 15 hours), an individual conference with your writer in residence, afternoon and evening events  as well as the Closing Dinner on July 2^nd.  For an additional fee of 75€, you can sign up for an individual Agent consultation on July 2.

Two half-tuition merit Patricia Painton scholarships are available to Registrants – deadline: April 30^th. Please consult the Guidelines for manuscript requirements.

For more information: www.pariswritersworkhop.org . Email:[email protected]

 

How much do writers really make?

 Can writers live off writing? 

According to Jennifer Schuessler writing in the NYT's writer blog Paper Cuts , "a 2008 study of the creative economy from the National Endowment for the Arts reported that full-time “writers and authors” earned a median annual salary of more than $50,000." 

Actually that's not too bad. Though as Nassim Nicolas Taleb demonstrates in his brilliant (and quite entertaining) THE BLACK SWAN, a few writers rake in millions while most eat beans.

What about great writers? Surely they must do well? 

Lapham's Quarterly  has compiled a fun and shocking list  of great writers' day jobs.  (Thank heavens for the Post Office!)

Do you really think you should earn more than Charlotte Bronte, William Faulkner, and Kafka ?

If you hesitate even for a second, it's time to reread Jane Eyre.  $1,838 she earned, Miss Bronte, taken care of someone else's brats, while she wrote Jane Eyre. 

Ten rules for writing fiction : Michael Morpurgo from guardian.co.uk

 1 The prerequisite for me is to keep my well of ideas full. This means living as full and varied a life as possible, to have my antennae out all the time.

2 Ted Hughes gave me this advice and it works wonders: record moments, fleeting impressions, overheard dialogue, your own sadnesses and bewilderments and joys.

3 A notion for a story is for me a confluence of real events, historical perhaps, or from my own memory to create an exciting fusion.

4 It is the gestation time which counts.

5 Once the skeleton of the story is ready I begin talking about it, mostly to Clare, my wife, sounding her out.

6 By the time I sit down and face the blank page I am raring to go. I tell it as if I'm talking to my best friend or one of my grandchildren.

7 Once a chapter is scribbled down rough – I write very small so I don't have to turn the page and face the next empty one – Clare puts it on the word processor, prints it out, sometimes with her own comments added.

8 When I'm deep inside a story, living it as I write, I honestly don't know what will happen. I try not to dictate it, not to play God.

9 Once the book is finished in its first draft, I read it out loud to myself. How it sounds is hugely important.

10 With all editing, no matter how sensitive – and I've been very lucky here – I react sulkily at first, but then I settle down and get on with it, and a year later I have my book in my hand.

To read the complete article in the Guardian, click here.

Ten rules for writing fiction : Sarah Waters from guardian.co.uk

 1 Read like mad. But try to do it analytically – which can be hard, because the better and more compelling a novel is, the less conscious you will be of its devices. It's worth trying to figure those devices out, however: they might come in useful in your own work. I find watching films also instructive. Nearly every modern Hollywood blockbuster is hopelessly long and baggy. Trying to visualise the much better films they would have been with a few radical cuts is a great exercise in the art of story-telling. Which leads me on to . . .

2 Cut like crazy. Less is more. I've often read manuscripts – including my own – where I've got to the beginning of, say, chapter two and have thought: "This is where the novel should actually start." A huge amount of information about character and backstory can be conveyed through small detail. The emotional attachment you feel to a scene or a chapter will fade as you move on to other stories. Be business-like about it. In fact . . .

3 Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Lots of writers get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy managed 5,000 before lunch, then spent the afternoon answering fan mail. My minimum is 1,000 words a day – which is sometimes easy to achieve, and is sometimes, frankly, like shitting a brick, but I will make myself stay at my desk until I've got there, because I know that by doing that I am inching the book forward. Those 1,000 words might well be rubbish – they often are. But then, it is always easier to return to rubbish words at a later date and make them better.

4 Writing fiction is not "self- expression" or "therapy". Novels are for readers, and writing them means the crafty, patient, selfless construction of effects. I think of my novels as being something like fairground rides: my job is to strap the reader into their car at the start of chapter one, then trundle and whizz them through scenes and surprises, on a carefully planned route, and at a finely engineered pace.

5 Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters' stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist's. At the same time . . .

6 Don't overcrowd the narrative. Characters should be individualised, but functional – like figures in a painting. Think of Hieronymus Bosch's Christ Mocked, in which a patiently suffering Jesus is closely surrounded by four threatening men. Each of the characters is unique, and yet each represents a type; and collectively they form a narrative that is all the more powerful for being so tightly and so economically constructed. On a similar theme . . .

7 Don't overwrite. Avoid the redundant phrases, the distracting adjectives, the unnecessary adverbs. Beginners, especially, seem to think that writing fiction needs a special kind of flowery prose, completely unlike any sort of language one might encounter in day-to-day life. This is a misapprehension about how the effects of fiction are produced, and can be dispelled by obeying Rule 1. To read some of the work of Colm Tóibín or Cormac McCarthy, for example, is to discover how a deliberately limited vocabulary can produce an astonishing emotional punch.

8 Pace is crucial. Fine writing isn't enough. Writing students can be great at producing a single page of well-crafted prose; what they sometimes lack is the ability to take the reader on a journey, with all the changes of terrain, speed and mood that a long journey involves. Again, I find that looking at films can help. Most novels will want to move close, linger, move back, move on, in pretty cinematic ways.

9 Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends' embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce . . . Working doggedly on through crises like these, however, has always got me there in the end. Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there's prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too.

10 Talent trumps all. If you're a really great writer, none of these rules need apply. If James Baldwin had felt the need to whip up the pace a bit, he could never have achieved the extended lyrical intensity of Giovanni's Room. Without "overwritten" prose, we would have none of the linguistic exuberance of a Dickens or an Angela Carter. If everyone was economical with their characters, there would be no Wolf Hall . . . For the rest of us, however, rules remain important. And,  crucially, only by understanding what they're for and how they work can you begin to experiment with breaking them.

To read the complete article in The Guardian, click here.

Good news French viticulteurs ! Red wine counteracts oxidized fats called malonaldehades !

 

Why does steak taste better with a glass of red wine?

Turns out "protein softens the wines's tanins, and red wine also helps counteract potentially harmful substances --oxidized fats called malonaldehades, or MDA--released when meat is digested. " 

Yumm! (see NYT's article) 

It's only a matter of time before Macdo introduces the Health Menu--big mac plus shiraz!

 

 

One small problem: medical science refuses to limit the benefits to FRENCH wine! Chilean, Californian and even, sigh, Italian grapes might also do the trick. 

For more food stories, see:

French women don't get fat 

Why Americans will always outweigh the French

Paris Writers News Update March 2010

 This month, news from Ann Mah, Anne Korkeakivi, The Atlantic Monthly and Kindle, Elizabeth Bard, Kacper Bartczak, Aaron Belz, Joshua Clover, Michael Farrell, Jacek Gutorow, Paul Grimstad, Paweł Marcinkiewicz, Maria Muresan, Bob Perelman, Eugene Richie, Sarah Riggs, Rosanne Wasserman, Barrett Watten, Harvey Vincent, Roma Tearne, VANNINA MAESTRI, RUFO QUINTAVALLE, ALEXANDRA SASHE, MARK TERRILL, Nick Calderbank, Dmitri Keramitis, Robert McLiam Wilson, Ira Seidenstein, Stephen Clarke, Marc Duret, Helen Benedict, Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, information on workshops and new calls for submissions!

 New books and Selected Events:  .. for more see Jen Dick's Event List and PARIS WRITERS EVENTS on this blog's right sidebar.)

 FLASH: Anne Korkeakivi's short story FOLDING PAPER now available on Kindle in the Atlantic Monthly's innovative  new distribution agreement for literary fiction that promises to revolutionize the publication and reading of short stories.  

Anne Korkeakivi's fiction has also appeared or is forthcoming in The Yale Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, and other magazines. She is at work on a novel and a collection of short stories. Her nonfiction has run in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Times (UK), the Village Voice, Gourmet, Ms., and Travel & Leisure, among numerous other periodicals.

  

Available exclusively on Kindle, Anne Korkeakivi's Folding Paper tells the story of Marine, an American expatriate in Paris. Marine is addicted to handsome Swiss-based Frederic; she realizes he’s not very nice to her, but being with him makes her feel as though she can rewrite her own dreary New England history. Every weekend, she races to catch the fast train to join him in Geneva. One Friday she finds herself seated next to an elderly couple who offer her an unexpected present.

Watch for more on the digital distribution of short stories and its impacts on writers and readers!

10 March – 3 April at 19h15 : THEATER in English “Relatively Speaking” by Alan Ayckbourn. Directed by Nick Calderbank. IN ENGLISH., Théâtre Nesle. Reservations 01 46 34 61 04.

 10 March  19:30 Ann Mah discusses the regional cuisine of China and presents Kitchen Chinese: A Novel about Food, Family and Finding 
 Ann Mah’s articles about food, travel, fashion, style and the arts have appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, the International Herald Tribune, Washingtonian magazine, the South China Morning Post, the Insider's Guide to Beijing, as well as on her blog. From 2003-2007 she lived in Beijing, where she was a staff writer and dining editor for That's Beijing, an English-language entertainment magazine. Her experiences in China inspired her novel, Kitchen Chinese. In 2005, she was awarded a James Beard culinary scholarship to study Italian cuisine in Bologna, Italy. AT The American Library in Paris

  

 11th March at 7p.m. Elizabeth Bard will present and sign her first book, “Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes. LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success and discovering what it truly means to be at home. AT: WH Smiths

 

 

13 March 15h-16h30 – A poetry reading at Charles V to close the Ashbery conference with guest authors Kacper Bartczak, Aaron Belz, Joshua Clover, Michael Farrell, Jacek Gutorow, Paul Grimstad, Paweł Marcinkiewicz, Maria Muresan, Bob Perelman, Eugene Richie, Sarah Riggs, Rosanne Wasserman and Barrett Watten. AT: Room 50, Charles V, 10 rue Charles V, 75004 Paris, M° St Paul or Sully Morland or Bastille. Details posted here:

 14th March at 7.30 pm EN FRANÇAIS : MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a play by Harvey Vincent "Un Americain Delirant a Paris" (en francais) For more, or e-mail Stephanie [email protected] for listings! Tel : 06 14 67 18 58 AT: Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris, M° Tuileries

 15 March 7pm Author and artist Roma Tearne will read from her acclaimed novels Bone China and Brixton Beach and present her Paris sketchbooks to the audience. A Sri Lankan-born artist and novelist living and working in Britain, Roma trained as a painter, completing her MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. For nearly 20 years her work as a painter, installation artist, and filmmaker has dealt with the traces of history and memory within public and private spaces. Her first novel Mosquito, was shortlisted for the Costa First Book Award. AT: Shakespeare & Co., 37rue de la Bûcherie, Paris 5ème. M° St Michel.

  

 18 March 7:30pm : The Paris-based literary journal UPSTAIRS AT DUROC invites you to a reading in honor of France’s Poetry Month, Le Printemps des Poètes, with work both in English and French (with English translations) from: VANNINA MAESTRI, RUFO QUINTAVALLE, ALEXANDRA SASHE and MARK TERRILL. AT: The American Library in Paris, 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007 Paris, Métro Ecole Militaire or RER station Pont de l’Alma.

 

18 March at 19h30: Café Littéraire First meeting around the novel Eureka Street written by Robert McLiam Wilson Reservation necessary. Places Limited. In English. AT : the Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris, Res at : 01 58 52 10 30

 

19 March at 18:30 pm  REVOLUTION IN READING: THE FUTURE OF BOOKS 

Talk by Fran Gendlin (Paris 7: see the PAN website for contact information)

Reading--and the way we read (write, sell, buy, publish) --- is changing wildly and this change is spreading its broad tentacles throughout the world. Changes in the publishing world, in writers’ options, in higher education’s approach and in the public’s perception are just some of the aspects of this vast topic addressed by Ms. Gendlin, former Editor and Publisher of Sierra Magazine and former Executive Director of the Association of American University Presses, in her talk to PAN members. This evening is free for PAN members, 5 euros for non-members.

21st March at 7.30 pm MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a screenplay by Alexis Niki "Momma's Office Boy" (in English) F AT: Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris, M° Tuileries 

 22 March 7pm Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier will discuss their new translation of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir which marks the 60th anniversary of publication. First published in 1949, The Second Sex is a landmark in the history of feminism. Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, both American, are longtime residents of France and former teachers at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris. AT: Shakespeare & Co., 37rue de la Bûcherie, Paris 5ème. M° St Michel.http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/

 

 

 Tom Reeves’ book, Paris Insights – An Anthology, published in the United States by DP Books in January 2010 has been called a “witty, incisive and always informative compilation of sights, sounds and good advice about enjoying the City of Light from an insider's vantage point,” by travel writer Jim Calio.

25 March 2010 19h30 : A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES with Judith Merians

The American Library in Paris - Paris

How does story telling in words differ creatively from story telling in films?   A Night at the Movies will compare excerpts from books and plays with scenes from the film versions of the literary works. Once a month scenes from a different book/play and its film version will be featured tol exemplify a different aspect of filmic story telling.  

• Thursday 25 March  Jaws: Creating suspense on screen through music and editing.
• Tuesday 13 April   Schindler's List: Establishing a documentary feel through the use of black and white film & historical details.
• Tuesday 11 May  City of God: Making a story set in the slums of Rio de Jainero have universal appeal.

This series will meet once a month, continuing through June 2010.   No RSVP required, just drop on in and join us for a Night at the Movies.

Judith Merians has been an entertainment attorney and business executive for the Hollywood Studios and independent production companies for 27 years.  She has taught in film schools around the world and has spoken at many film conferences including the Cannes Film Festival and the American Film Market seminars.  She is currently a consultant to independent filmmakers and film school professor.

 

 25th March at 7p.m. Stephen Clarke, author of the bestselling Merde series, will present and sign his new title “1000 Years of Annoying the French” Stephen Clarke lives in Paris, where he divides his time between writing and not writing. His first novel, “A Year in the Merde”, originally became a word-of-mouth hit in 2004, and is now published all over the world. Since then he has published three more bestselling Merde novels, as well as “Talk to the Snail”. AT: WH Smiths

 28th March EN FRANÇAIS : MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a play by Marc Duret "Coach de Vies" (en francais) AT: Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris, M° Tuileries

31 March QLIC Café will be held Wednesday, March 31. http://www.hopeinparis.com/qlic_caf%C3%A9

Dmitri Keramitis' "Seven Ontological Proofs of My Non-Existence" will be published by Dawn, a Welsh literary review, in June.

** ** ** ** **

Part II) Workshops in Paris! 

The Other Writers' Group! David Barnes' drop in writers' workshop (just turn up!) every Saturday 5pm till 7pm. Bring 8 copies of your prose or poetry for instant feedback and discussion. Length should be up to about 3 pages (prose) or 2 poems. Suggested donation 5 euros. Upstairs in the library at Shakespeare & Company, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 

Helen Benedict, a former instructor at WICE’s PWW, is offering a week-long writing workshop with Stephen O'Connor this July in a beautiful part of France. Sponsored by VCCA (Virginia Center for the Creative Arts), it provides workshops, individual teaching, tours, food and a glorious environment. It helps fund VCCA, too. 

 Words Alive O Theatre Classes and Workshops in English for Adults and Children : Theatre Workshop in English - Fridays 19h45 to 22h45 Théâtre de Ménilmontant 15, rue du Retrait 75020 Map. Open to native and fluent English speakers Try-out fee 15€ ; Intermediate Theatre Class in English - Wednesdays 20h15 to 21h45 23 rue de la Sourdière 75001 Map These classes offer a dynamic approach towards practicing English using theatre training, improvisation and work on texts. Open to anglophiles with a good level of spoken English who wish to improve their fluency and confidence. Also open to native speakers. Try-out fee 11€ : Theatre Workshop in English for children aged 7-10 - Saturdays 17h to 19h 35, rue St. Roch 75001 Paris Map The workshop is open to children who are bilingual or have an intermediate level of spoken English. The participants will work on improvisation, movement and theatre exercises to improve their speaking skills and create a play. Try-out fee 12€. Contact: [email protected] Tel 06 37 66 27 98 / 01 77 15 71 90

 March 14th - April 11th Explorations in Voice at WRITING BY THE SEINE: A five-week Sunday writing workshop offering a creative and supportive space for hopeful, emerging and experienced writers. 11AM - 1PM at the Shakespeare and Co bookshop, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005. Contribution: 50 euros for an entire 5-week cycle. Please contact the workshop leader, Susannah Elisabeth Pabot, [email protected] for more details and to reserve a place.

April 3,4,5: Ira Seidenstein will give a workshop via Improfessionals in Paris. See Ira’s notes  He does courses on performance, clowing, etc.

FLASH 29 April - May 2  :  Samoens, in the French Alps 

WORKHOP : It's a melange of poetry, prose and fiction writing, the tutors being Paul Henry, the Welsh poet and songwriter, and Sarah Hall, multi-award winning novelist, both extremely experienced creative writing tutorse.  (Sarah Hall's most recent novel "How to paint a dead man" was listed for the Booker.)... 

It starts late afternoon/eve on Thursday 29th April to Sunday 2 May, so Paris writers can pop down for  a long weekend. We're only a stone's throw from a TGV/train route.  It's a residential course, based in a beautiful alpine chalet, with great dinners and breakfast included....

  Rather than bleat on here endlessly - here is the website address so you can browse at your leisure....www.wordmeadow.com. I'm adding to it daily

I'll be making an announcement about the course to the Geneva Writers Group  on Saturday, but obviously in view of the course date, time is precious. I f there's anyway you can list this on your site I would be very grateful -- from Lisa Storm-Olsen

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

 

June 27-July 2, 2010: Paris Writers Workshop! France's longest running English language writers workshop will take place from June 27-July 2, 2010. For new and established writers are welcome. Small workshops in Memoir & Biography, Short Story, Poetry, Creative Non-fiction and the Novel with instructors: Memoir - John Baxter; Short Story - Sheila Kohler; Poetry - Alice Notley; Creative Non-fiction -Mimi Schwartz; & Novel - Matt Thorne. Special features include lectures, walking tours, evening events, and a closing literary dinner - all for one inclusive price. The Paris Writers Workshop is committed to providing inspiration and high-level instruction on craft to writers of all skill levels in a supportive environment. The PWW celebrates the diversity of voices within its community of writers. Email: [email protected]

Submit !

SUBMIT: "COMPENDIUM, a new magazine of images and words, is accepting submissions for its inaugural issue. 

 SUBMIT and read current version ONLINE NOW : Read Paris’ gai-straight-bi-mixed everything and anything goes magazine HORS-MIC. Also seeking editors and editorial staff in French, English or open to other native languages! To see the new edition, click the link! Editor Dominic says “La nouvelle édition de notre mag parisien anglo franco et gay friendly! Lisez et pensez de nous aider avec tes ideas, photos et textes! » Seeking art, photos, fiction, nonfiction, essays/reviews and poetry.  to see the issue. And to sign up for mailing list, send work, attend editorial meetings: contact Mag Litteraire, [email protected]

SUBMIT: Here we are on the verge of the first spring of the new decade, and we are celebrating the coming equinox with our Poetry Project—Fragments from Sappho contest. All poems submitted are eligible for inclusion on our April/May issue of the Poetry Project, an online journal from Tupelo Press, and for the first time, a print journal will be produced at the end of the year: Best of the Poetry Project. For the Fragments from Sappho project, our judge, Athena Kildegaard, will select one first prize ($500), one second prize ($250) and one third prize ($150) winner. The work of these winners will headline the issue, along with the balance of the poems for the April/May issue. See complete guidelines to submit

SUBMIT work for anthology: Following on from the success of our winter collection By The Winter Fires, we are now open to submissions for our summer collection. What does the summer mean to you? What memories does it hold? Is it all about holidays, or are there darker corners? “Crab Lines Off The Pier” is an anthology of summer. It can be recalled memories, present events or dreams, nature, journeys, sounds, sights and smells, joy or melancholy. Release your imagination to the theme and share with others. Indigo Dreams invites your poem to 40 lines or prose to 350 words. Please email just one selection with your submission as an attachment and your full name and address contained in the email Please use the anthology title as a heading to ensure it is considered. Closing Date is Friday 28th May 2010. Publication late June, early July.

 CONFERENCE:The Ashbery conference will take place in Paris this month.

 SPOKEN WORD   Share your work on any theme or work on the theme of the night.

15 March from 8:30pm to LATE: on Bread… du pain

22 March from 8:30pm to LATE: SpokenWord on Lies/lying

29 March from 8:30pm to LATE: SpokenWord on Needs

AT: Cabaret Populaire/Culture Rapide, 103 rue Julien Lacroix Metro Belleville/Pyrénées 75020 Paris

 

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Is University Education a Right?

 No university places for 50,000 with good grades ! a Times headline screams.

In the UK,  "Ucas applications are already up by 23 per cent — or 106,389— this year, but the number of places has been cut by 6,000. Last year, 30,000 good students failed to get into university."

"We have got a rise in the number of applicants," Uca head, Ms Curnock Cook said. "Clearly entrance becomes more competitive.”

The Times article by Joanna Sugden provoked a thoughtful debate among readers:

• Is everyone ENTITLED to a university education? I
• Is it a mistake to encourage ALL students to attend university? 
• How much to subsidize higher education? 
• How to determine which students get in?

These questions deserve serious thought on this side of the Channel as well.

In the USA, all but a handful of states have slashed university budgets and raised tuition due to the financial crisis.

California has been hardest hit. "The Cal State system has lost one-fifth of its state funding in the past two fiscal years, a $625 million reduction, and students have absorbed a 32 percent tuition increase this year. The system's 48,000 employees took a 10 percent pay cut through furloughs -- two full days per month, across the board. The system is cutting 20,000 students this year."--Washington Post.

France, meanwhile, has increased university and research spending--albeit from a very low base--by 2.9%.