Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Paris Short Story Contest Editorial Committee

  Paris Writers News is delighted to announce the composition of the Editorial Committee for the Paris Short Story Contest. 

The Editorial Committee has two roles:

1)  select the shortlist of stories which will be submitted to the finalist judges. 

2) choose the winner of the 200 euro Editorial Committee Prize

We are extremely pleased to have united a talented group of writers and editors specialized in different areas (short story, novels, non-fiction, journalism, travel, humor, blogging, academia)--all passionate and discerning readers. 

Here is our team: 

• Beth Arnold : Award winning writer and journalist for Rolling Stone, GQ, InStyle, Self, American Way, Premiere, and online at The Huffington Post, Salon.com and Vogue.com, Editor of Letter from Paris
• Janice Abbott: author of Meet the Press, translator and teacher.
•  Jennifer K. Dick : Author of Fluorescence and Patina, co-founder of Ivy writers series and professor of American Literature
•  Mary Duncan: author of Henry Miller is Under My Bed, Professor. Founder/coordinator Paris Writers Group. Patron of the Shakespeare and Company Literary Festival,  founder of Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Moscow
  
• Kristin Espinasse : Author of Words in a French Life and the extremely popular blog, French Word A Day 
• Karen Fawcett :  Publisher and editor of the widely-read Bonjour Paris,  journalist 
• Mary Ellen Gallagher: Fiction and non-fiction writer, currently completing a novel.  MFA from Lesley University, Cambridge MA; short story awards from the US, France & Australia.
  
• Nancy Gerbault: Literary agent and President Abroad Writers Conferences
• Hilary Kaiser : Author of French War Brides and Veteran Recall, former tenured associate professor at the University of Paris
• Dimitri Keramitas : Short story writer, reviewer,  teacher and translator
• Barry Kirwan: author of The Eden Paradox, short story writer
• Marcia Lebre : Director of the Paris Writers Workshop since 1998
• Kai Maristed: Author of the short story collection Belong to Me and the novels Out After Dark, Fall, and Broken Ground, her fiction and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The American Voice, StoryQuarterly, The American Scholar, Zoetrope, and The Anchor Essay Annual.  Kai has taught at Emerson College and the Harvard Extension School and in the Warren Wilson MFA Program, has judged the University of Michigan Hopwood Awards and reviews frequently for The Los Angeles Times. 
  
• Thirza Valois : Author of the acclaimed Around and About Paris series
• Christopher Vanier : Author of Caribbean Chemistry
• Eve Zuckerman : Editor in chief of L'Inébranlable, contributor to Sunday Telegraph, Ireland's Independent and Bonjourparis.com 

 

For more about the contest please check the website for updates:

 

 

 

PARIS WRITERS NEWS SHORT STORY CONTEST

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

 

Finalist Judges

 

FAQs

 

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Can you judge a book by its cover? Janet Skeslien Charles opens the debate...

Janet Skeslien Charles' novel Moonlight in Odessa (Bloomsbury) was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of their top ten debut novels of Fall 2009 and received the 2010 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. It was a Book of the Month selection in National Geographic Traveler. BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime featured Moonlight in Odessa for two weeks in February 2010. Foreign rights have been sold in 12 languages. Janet has led writing workshops at the American Library in Paris, WICE, and Shakespeare & Co and is currently working on her second novel. She is originally from Montana but has lived in Paris since 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

Cover Story by Janet Skeslien Charles 

We all judge books by their covers, which is why so much thought and work goes into creating them. Here, we look at a few covers for my novel Moonlight in Odessa, which is a novel about Daria, an email-order bride who travels to America looking for a better life with her new husband. When she arrives in America, she finds out little by little that he isn’t exactly who he said he was.

  The cover that Amy King designed for Bloomsbury US features the port of Odessa. I love the stamps and postmark, the image of the port with a sliver of a ship in the corner, and the way the romantic-sounding title of the novel is offset by the stark black font. However, I could understand the point that others made — they felt that the image was ‘too quiet and literary.’

 

 

 

Natalie Slocum designed the second image. The red cover is striking, and the way she has used the image of the Golden Gate Bridge as a metaphor for Daria’s American Dream is brilliant.

 

When my editor Helen Garnons-Williams bought Moonlight in Odessa, she asked what I’d like to see on the cover. We both felt that the snow globe was an important image in the novel, and I am delighted to see that this image is used on both the US and UK covers. On the British cover, I love the way Sarah Morris Greeno has shown both the old city of Odessa (in dark blue) as well as the Soviet section of Odessa (in light blue).

 

 

 

The mass-market edition of Moonlight edition comes out in September worldwide, except the UK, where it will come out January 2010. Designer Sarah Morris Greeno played around with different looks and colors for this edition.

 

Davy van der Elsken designed both Dutch covers.  This cover is a shocking image of a beautiful woman who is trapped in a box, a striking metaphor for the novel. Sites like www.loveme.com and amorsi.com are similar to Amazon.com, and Davy conveys this feeling of ordering a woman so well.

In the end, Mouria, the publishing house in the Netherlands, decided to go with another cover. Here we see a cover that is rich in images — icons of American and Ukrainian/ Russian architecture, a wall that is crumbling down, a wedding-top couple atop a…. toilet. This is a bold cover that does not shy away from the darker elements of the book.

The creativity of each artist amazes me, and I love how each one has chosen to present the novel, each one emphasizing the dreamy, romantic, quirky, ironic, fun, and scary elements of the novel.

For more information about Moonlight in Odessa, as well as author interviews, links for writers, and more great covers, please visit www.jskesliencharles.com.

 

Terrance Gelenter, author of From Bagels to Brioches, on Paris, fate, Jewishness and living the good life

Authors interview Authors:

This week, Laurel Zuckerman talks with Terrance Gelenter, who's earned the nickname "Mr. Paris" with his inside knowledge and outgoing charm. 

His widely read Paris Through Expatriate Eyes website and newsletter offer unique cultural tours, literary interviews and exclusive events for Paris expat cognoscenti . Terrance's first book, From Bagels to Brioches: Paris Par Hasard, is coming out this month. The international launch wil take place at the Café de Flore September 9 in a typically stylish event. (by reservation only, more info here).  

   LZ : What brought you to Paris? Why is this city different from all other cities?

TG : I can list all of the obvious: culture, history, gastronomy, fine wines at all prices, terrace sitting and people watching but as Johnny Mathis said: 

"It's not just for what you are yourself
that I love you as I do
but for what I am
when I am with you."

 Paris allows me to be me. It is a city that cherishes its architectural heritage while embracing its future-eg. Pei's pyramid. From a cab driver to a business executive its patrimony is celebrated. And for a city of its size it is remarkably safe and civilized.

LZ : In your expert opinion, is there really something special about French women? (Do they really not get fat and not sleep alone, as Mireille Guiliano and Jamie Cat Callan suggest in their books?)

TG : Speaking as an "expert," yes. But its not about the insouciant way that they tie a scarf or the way they walk or the way they flirt beginning at about 6 months of age. It's their self confidence that is extraordinarily sexy. They don't need the approval of a man for self esteem. They are who they are and you either get or tant pis.

My friend Deba Ollivier explains it in detail in WHAT FRENCH WOMEN KNOW ABOUT LOVE, SEX AND OTHER MATTERS OF THE HEART 

 

 LZ : What about French men? There are practically no books about them at all!

TG : When they become iconic let's discuss it!

 

 LZ : The subtitle of your memoir is : Paris par Hasard, but it is really an accident? Are we not masters of our fate?

TG : We are masters of how we respond to things that occur par hasard. My book is replete with accidental meetings that developed into friendships or as when I tried to help a beautiful young woman make a purchase in the former doyenne of luxury retailing in San Francisco, I.Magnin.She was from Mexico, had two young children, didn't speak a word of English, I didn't speak a word of Spanish but one year later a guy who never wanted a wife or children had both.

 

 

LZ : You were brought up in a small Christian mining town, yet found your place in Brooklyn and Paris.  Are there are genes for Frenchness and Jewishness that just can’t be suppressed? What made you break out?

TG : Frenchness no, Jewishness, yes. I took to my Jewishness like the proverbial canard to water. Joke telling with perfect comic timing, noshing the basics, bagels, lox, chopped liver, pastrami, etc. And in Darwinian fashion always adapting to my changed environments it was a cinch.

Becoming French was a gradual process and it now seems as if entire life had been a dress rehearsal for my life in France.

 

LZ : Your mother was a French war bride. How would you describe your roots?

TG : Curiously, she had very little impact on me. She and my biological father divorced before I was two and I was initially raised by my paternal grandmother while my mother worked. She and my grandfather taught me the values of honesty, hard work and community.

 

In New York, from my "new" grandparents and father I learned to appreciate culture, learning, self-reliance and how to survive in a demanding environment.

 

 

LZ : After several professions, you now organize literary and cultural events. How did this come about?

TG : As in all things in my life, organically. I had been a voracious reader from the time I had a library card. Four books out on Monday, four books returned for four more the following Monday-mostly history and biography. Those books fueled my wanderlust and my ability to assimilate cultures and grasp foreign languages. So, animating literary events was a fairly natural progression and being a natural schmoozer, performer, needing only an audience of one to take the stage didn't hurt.

 

LZ : I love your author interviews. What’s your secret to meeting terrific writers and convincing them to talk with you?

TG : Thank you. Over the years beginning with my career in Hispanic media I had developed contacts with NY publishers who purchased advertising from me. When I created Paris Through Expatriate Eyes the client base was already in place and I kept tabs on upcoming titles about Paris and pursued the authors through their publicists. And then I read their work so that I could ask intelligent questions and make them comfortable when talking to me.

 

LZ : Name the three best books about Paris that our readers have never heard of.

TG : MEMOIRS OF MONTPARNASSE/JOHN GLASSCO

THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS/Eliot PAUL

REPORT FROM A PARISIAN PARADISE/JOSEPH ROTH

 

LZ : For you, what are the most important elements in living the good life?

TG : Simplicity-generosity of spirit, good friends, good children, good food and wine, good books and if you are lucky, someone with whom to share it.

  

LZ : What are your next projects?

TG : The perpetuation of my Paris in New York Literary Festival (2nd annual event Oct 17), making PARIS par HASARD into a perennial and eventually a TV show from Paris.

 

LZ : If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would that be?

TG : Positive, as in Acc-entu-ate the.

For more information about Terrance's events and tours, please contact him at:  [email protected] or in Paris call Terrance Gelenter at 06-7098-1368

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