Best Paris Stories

Crossroads at the Paris Fringe Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Tue, 23 May 2017 18:14:00 +0000

The cast of Crossroads performing at the Paris Fringe. From left to right: Andrea Offner, Lotte Lauren, Marion Préïté and Miranda Crispin.

On a beautiful Paris evening in May, the Paris Fringe international theatre festival kicked off with an opening ceremony to showcase the performances at this year’s event. An interview by Madeleine Kirchhoff with Paris-based musical theatre writer, performer and artistic director Miranda Crispin.

Madeleine Kirchhoff: You’re the artistic director of American Musical Theatre Live in Paris which has created a bilingual musical selected for the 2017 Paris Fringe. I had the opportunity to see a snippet of the musical at the opening night of Paris Fringe. Tell us a about how the show was developed.

Miranda Crispin: Crossroads was originally conceived by four members of American Musical Theatre Live Paris (Marion Préïté, Devon Graves, Andrea Offner, and me), a musical theatre group of American and French artists who shared their cultures, languages, and stories to create this new, bilingual (French-English) musical.

The show was commissioned in 2016 for a private performance at the Manoir de Bonaventure, the childhood home of Alfred de Musset (whose poetry inspired the piece). This Paris Fringe performance, with direction by AMT Live member Adam Alexander, is the first time the show performs on a Parisian stage.

MK: What’s the show about, and who are the performers?

MC: The story takes place in present day in an airport where we meet a young bride-to-be who has fled her wedding. She encounters three women who help her make the biggest decision of her life - for better or for worse. Each woman shares insight from her own experience, in conversation and songs which blur the boundaries between French and English.

The story is punctuated by new and existing repertoire, accompanied by the artists on piano and guitar. From classical Golden Age tunes to contemporary musical theatre, the score includes jazz, blues, and country songs, and interpolates original compositions written for this show.

In this show, I perform alongside three members of the AMT Live company: American singer/songwriter Andrea Offner (USA), who also serves as President of the association, French performer and playwright Marion Préïté (who wrote the book for this musical), and the newest member of the troupe, performer Lotte Lauren (Belgium). Original songs by Andrea Offner and Devon Graves are featured in the show.

MK: What’s the musical theatre scene like in Paris?

MC: Paris is an exciting place to be creating musical theatre right now. There is both a reverence for the tradition of the genre, and a curiosity for new works. The artistry and audience for musical theatre in Paris continue to grow, and it’s fascinating to see the fusion of this American genre and a French sensibility.

We wrote this bilingual musical to serve an ever-increasing bilingual community, and to create a bridge between anglophone and francophone theatregoers.

The company is thrilled to have been selected to present Crossroads as part of the international line up at the Paris Fringe. The festival, which takes place May 18-28, 2017, showcases both international work and France-based theatre companies with a focus on innovative approaches to theatre and an emphasis on contemporary themes in English.

MK: What else do you have in the works?

MC: With AMT Live, we are working on season plans for 2018-19 to include production of a professional musical, another session of integrated musical theatre classes, and will continue to produce Broadway cabaret themed concerts as a part of our Broadway Chez Nous Series, including a new concert dedicated to the works of Cole Porter. Last weekend, I performed alongside AMT company members in a Broadway concert to support the Paris non-profit arts organization Les Arts George V. I’m currently working as a vocal coach for the Disneyland Paris musical Mickey et le Magicien and have been collaborating with Paris Fringe founder Dom Douglas (as vocal coach) on a reading of his new musical, Le Chanteur Anglais. In June, I’ll join the Company L’elixir enchanté in the cast of La Vie Parisienne...ou Presque!, a comic reinterpretation of the Offenbach operetta, directed by Philippe d’Avilla.

Madeleine Kirchhoff

About

Madeleine Kirchhoff is a sociology student at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with interests in education and culture. She is spending the summer in Europe.

Miranda Crispin is an actor, director, singer, teacher and language enthusiast. With a Masters degree in Music Theatre/Opera Performance from Arizona State University, and a B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University, she studied French language at the Sorbonne and has served as an American Ambassadorial Scholar to France. She is the co-founder and Artistic Director of American Musical Theatre Live Paris.

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 10:13:00 +0000

New to Paris? Bloom Where You Are Planted

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 10:13:00 +0000

Paris is glorious. But daunting.
Especially for trailing spouses who must find a way to integrate in their new home, often without the benefit of working papers.
Bloom Where You Are Planted has been helping new arrivals to get situated and meet friends for years.
If you are new to Paris, or just looking to update your network, Bloom is holding its annual Fall event Saturday, 8 October, 2016.

Highly Recommended.

Saddened to Announce Death of Honor and Courage Among Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 11:51:00 +0000

In another grievous blow to the tradition of freedom of expression in 21st century Western Democracies, we are saddened to announce the death of honor in former writers Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner and Taiye Selasi.

In "declining to attend" the PEN gala honoring slain French journalists at Charlie Hébdo, the snubbing writers join fashionable Garry Trudeau and Vice Chancellor Patrick Johnston of Queens University in supporting censorship by Islamists in the name of "free speech but only in so far as it doesn't offend anyone".

It is to be noted in the wake of the massacre of Charlie Hébdo writers and cartoonists in Paris that the expression "the pen is mightier than the sword" is a metaphor, not a military fact.

As a result, numerous writers, bloggers, cartoonists, journalists, free thinkers, secularists, and "apostates" have been shot, decapitated, hacked to death, imprisoned or sentenced to death for a difference of opinion, a joke, a heretical belief or some other thought crime by people with guns and swords and explosive belts, and clubs, most of whom, ironically, have never read the writers they are murdering.

Burial will take place in the press and on social media.

The cause of death is not know, though cowardice or a dangerous addiction to fashion have been named as suspects.

Six gift books for Valentines Day

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 13:27:00 +0000

FUSAC is featuring six great books - including Best Paris Stories - in their Valentine's Day selection! You can check them out here: http://www.fusac.fr/gifts-ideas-valentines-day/

In a new language, you can be a new person, says polyglot French author

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 07:12:00 +0000

Polyglot French author, Marie Houzelle, talks about the joys of writing in foreign languages, music, the voice of childhood, and the feast for senses that is Catholic ritual.

Interview by Janet Skeslien Charles, author of the award-winning Moonlight in Odessa.

Marie Houzelle's acclaimed debut novel Tita tells the story of a precocious seven-year-old schoolgirl struggling to find her way amid the traditions of southern France in the 1950s.
Tita will be released September 15 in paperback and December 15 in ebook.

"a strange, utterly original child"
.- Katharine Weber, author of Triangle and True Confections

Extracts:

When did you begin writing fiction?

Like Tita, as a child I used to write musical plays for my friends. In my teens, nothing but political songs and leaflets. My first narrative fiction was destined for my younger daughter, Mathilde, who liked comic strips (and the bedtime stories I improvised) but refused to read actual books. She was pretty critical of my efforts. So was I.
I kept scribbling, especially in public transport, about what was going on around me. Usually not in French, because people tend to glance at your notebook.

Ten years ago, I was in Alice Notley’s magnificent weekly workshop, trying to write non-fiction stories; I was so obsessed with truth I ended up with nothing but questions, for which I couldn’t find the right shape. Unwillingly, as a last resort, I defected to fiction. What a relief!

Why do you write in English?

I’m not sure why I write in English. Or why I mostly sing in German and Latin. Last week, I felt like writing in Dutch, I had such a good time trying to pronounce it. French? I’m not fond of the word écrivain, not to mention écrivaine. While I feel quite comfortable with writer.

I teach creative writing to French university students. What advice do you have for them concerning writing in English?

Feel free. In a new language, you can be a new person. Don’t try to write either correctly or “like a native speaker”. English is a welcoming language. Many countries, no Academy. Enjoy it.

Marie Houzelle grew up in the south of France. Her work has appeared in the collection Best Paris Stories, in Narrative Magazine, Pharos, Orbis, Serre-Feuilles, Van Gogh's Ear, and in the chapbook No Sex Last Noon. "Hortense on Tuesday Night" was chosen by Narrative Magazine as one of the five top stories of 2011. Marie Houzelle was the only author to have two stories selected for inclusion in Best Paris Stories.

Tita will be published on September 15, 2015 in paperback. Available in Paris at Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Available worldwide on Amazon and in your local bookstore.

For more information on Tita and Marie Houzelle.

Publishers Weekly

Out and About in Paris

Interview with Author Marie Houzelle.

New York Journal of Books

Extracts published courtesy of Janet Skeslien Charles.
Read full interview here:
http://www.jskesliencharles.com/2014/09/interview-with-marie-houzelle/#

I'm Not Sure Why I Write in English, says polyglot French author

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 12:07:00 +0000

Link moved: Please see Interview with Marie Houzelle by Janet Skeslien Charles here

Books: Best Friends Forever

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 08:35:00 +0000

Forced to abandon his library when fleeing Nazi Europe, author Léopold Stern arrived in Rio De Janeiro in 1940 on the famous Serpa Pinto ship with 420 other refugees. Over the next two years, he would jot down his impressions of his new home in what was to become the book, Rio De Janiero et Moi.

In one of the essays, entitled "My Book" (Mon Livre) he reflects on what he misses about having his own books with him.

"My" book is not the same as the one you will find in the front window of any bookstore, from the same author and with the same title; far from it!

"My book," he explains, is the one full of my own margin notes, of places that I underlined, and of earmarked paged that I bend myself, even though I hate, as an act of brutality, to see the pages of a book bent. It is the one that I read for the first time when I was sixteen, listening to a Nocturne of Chopin floating down from the floor above.

And in explaining what is special about "my book", Stern gives us perhaps the most convincing reason - 70 years before the creation of the ebook - why the electronic book will never replace the printed book in our hearts.

Read Complete Essay "My Book" by Léopold Stern, 1942 (translated into English by Linda Zuckerman)

25 June Paris Writers Workshop Panel “Getting Published – A Writer’s Options”

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:58:00 +0000

4PM – 6PM Wednesday 25 June 2014

American University of Paris. Combes Building, Room C12, at 6, Rue du Colonel Combes, 75007

* FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC *

Traditional publishing is changing as digital transforms the industry – what does this mean for you, the writer? The publishing world has changed and continues to change so quickly that everyone in the industry is having trouble keeping up. This poses a particular problem for authors, who even in the best of times are uncomfortable with business and technology. The old certainties about what being published means and what to expect from the different players are challenged every day, and authors struggle to find their footing. What should one expect from an agent? Is one better off self-publishing? How do books get into stores? In this time of great change, what should a writer know?

Join five experts from different areas of the publishing industry for their insights and tips on how to weigh your options:

Samantha Chang, author, director of Iowa Writers Workshop, 2014 PWW Writer-in-Residence.
Mark Kessler, literary agent, Susanna Lea Associates, Paris, New York, London.
Hannah Seidl, former literary events manager, WHSmith Paris.
Linda Fallon, head buyer, Shakespeare and Company.
Facilitated by Laurel Zuckerman, author, and editor of Paris Writers News.

Combes Building, Room C12, at 6, Rue du Colonel Combes, 75007
The Publishing Panel is free of charge and Open to the Public.
http://pariswritersworkshop.org/events/experts-publishing-panel/

Best Paris Stories SPECIAL FOR SUMMER BOOK CLUBS

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 21:00:00 +0000

TWELVE STORIES ABOUT PARIS

Best Paris Stories

ISBN-13: 978-0982369852

available now on Kindle USA, Kindle France, Kindle UK and IN PAPERBACK.

Bookclubs please contact parisshortstory@gmail.com for group orders

For some, Paris is home, for others, merely a dream. For Gaston, it is a bench, the anchor of his life. For Sue, a romantic city filled with scandalous, dark-eyed men, for Frank an all-consuming fire, for Mme Santinelli a ghost she'd hoped to forget. By turns humorous, bittersweet, historical or surreal, each of these carefully selected stories invites us to explore a different facet of Paris.

BEST PARIS STORIES brings together the winning short stories of the 2011 Paris Short Story Contest with works by Jeannine Alter, Bob Levy, Lisa Burkitt, Nafkote Tamirat, Marie Houzelle, Jo Nguyen, Julia Mary Lichtblau, Mary Byrne, Marie Houzelle, Jane M. Handel, and Jim Archibald.

"Exciting new voices from the winners of the 2011 Paris Short Story Contest" - Paris Writers News

Paris speaks to her each of her lovers with a different voice meant just for them.. Now in this rich compendium of stories, we get touching glimpses of those voices, one by one, reminding us that Paris remains true to herself. -Frances Gendlin, author of Paris, Moi and the Gang

"Funny or wrenching, get ready to be moved by this literary feast" - Lizzie Harwood, Paris writer and editor

available now on Kindle USA, Kindle France, Kindle UK and elsewhere.

Publication news from Best Paris Stories author Mary Byrne!

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 10:15:00 +0000

Mary Byrne's short story "Frank stands his ground, in Belleville" was a finalist in the Paris Short Story Contest and selected for inclusion in BEST PARIS STORIES.

Born in Ireland and living in France, Mary's short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous anthologies including Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories (2008) and Queens Noir (2008). Winner Fiction International short fiction contest 2011.

We are delighted to report on her most recent publications. Congratulations Mary!

Recently published:

Short story 'Lay lady lay' appeared in Etchings Issue 11 (print), Ilura Press, Australia.
Short story 'Mastery' appeared in Prick of the Spindle Issue 3 (print).
'Rogues' Gallery II', a series of very short fiction pieces, appeared in Fiction International 45: About Seeing (print).
'Journey to the East', a series of short fiction pieces, appeared in Whistling Fire 2013/06/06/journey-to-the-east-2/>
Poem 'A day on the rue du Faubourg' appeared in The Cossack Review com/supplement1/mary_byrne.html>
100-word piece chosen by Marco Polo Arts Magazine as part of its 100x100 contest com/Qa-id>
Short story 'Pathetic Fallacy' appeared in Midway Journal Vol. 5 Issue 5 Jun12_Fiction-PatheticFallacy.html>

Forthcoming:

Very short piece 'Waiting for the electricity' will be published in the Flash in the Attic anthology featuring twenty-six short-short stories from the Fiction Attic Press contest, due Summer 2013.
A parallel life chapbook will be published by Kore Press in Fall 2013 to coincide with their 20th birthday. The story won the Kore Press Short Fiction Award 2012. See <www.korepress.org>
Short story 'Old wood best to burn' to be published by Transnational Literature (Australia) in November 2013.

New stories from Julia Lichtblau, winner of the Editorial Committee Prize

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 08:39:00 +0000

Julia Lichtblau, winner of the Best Paris Stories Editorial Committee Prize to publish new stories in Narrative Magazine and The Florida Review.

The Ivory Hotel, will be published Oct. 7 in Narrative Magazine, and Foreign Service, is coming out in The Florida Review. The story, Circus, was a finalist in Narrative Magazine's Winter 2013 Story Contest!

Anne Korkeakivi, author of An Unexpected Guest, to speak at The American Library in Paris Oct 10

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 06:49:00 +0000

“Serious geopolitics mixes with parenthood and the finer points of entertaining... Like her protagonist, Korkeakivi’s writing is cool, calm and composed." - The New York Times

Wed 10 October 2012
19h30

Evenings with an Author: Anne Korkeakivi

The American Library in Paris

10, rue du Général Camou
75007 Paris, France

On a lovely spring day in Paris – post-9/11 and several months after the London Underground bombings — Clare Moorhouse, the Irish-American wife of a high-ranking British diplomat, is arranging an official dinner crucial to her husband’s career. As she shops for fresh stalks of asparagus and works out the menu and seating arrangements, her day is complicated by the abrupt arrival of her son from boarding school in England and a random encounter with a man on the street, who may be a suspected terrorist. More unnerving still is a recurring face in the crowd, one that belonged to another, darker era of her life. But it can’t be him…

Like Virginia Woolf did in Mrs. Dalloway, Anne Korkeakivi brilliantly weaves the complexities of an age into an act as deceptively simple as hosting a dinner party.

About the author

Anne Korkeakivi is the author of An Unexpected Guest (Little, Brown; April 2012). Her short fiction has been published by the Atlantic, the YaleReview, the Bellevue Literary Review, the Brooklyn Review, and other magazines, and in 2011 she was made a Hawthornden Fellow. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Times (U.K.), the Village Voice, Gourmet, Travel & Leisure, Ms., and many other periodicals in the U.S. and the U.K. She was raised in New York City and western Massachusetts, and currently lives in Switzerland with her husband, who is a human rights lawyer at the U.N. in Geneva, and two daughters. Other places she's lived include France and Finland.

Read the Kirkus review of An Unexpected Guest and see more on Anne's website.

WICE to offer class in writing about Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:04:00 +0000

Thursdays October 4, 11, 18, 25

Course Description: For so many, Paris is less a place than a dream, an icon of romance and beauty infused with all manner of improbable hopes and impossible desires. For those of us who live here, however, Paris is a very real and sometimes gritty city, the backdrop for the evolving dramas of our daily lives. How to write about Paris – and our lives here – especially when our reality does not conform to the fervent expectations of others? In this four part series, mixing classwork with writing exercises, we will learn from the masters and explore avenues for writing about Paris in ways that are both fresh and personal.

Instructor: Laurel Zuckerman is the director of Best Paris Stories and the editor of Paris Writers News. Her books include Sorbonne Confidential (Fayard) and Les Rêves Barbares du Professeur Collie (Fay

WO041 Parisian Lives

Start
04 Oct 2012
3:00 PM
End
25 Oct 2012
5:00 PM
Location
WICE 10 rue Tiphaine 75015 Paris; Métro:La Motte-Picquet-Grenelle; Bus: 80.

Registration

Full Course WO041 - €115.00 (EUR)

Best Paris Stories authors to read at PAN Art Show in Montmartre

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 03:38:00 +0000

September 11 at 6:30 pm: Marie Houzelle and Jane M Handel will read from the witty "Hortense on a Tuesday Night" and "The Way You Looked at Me" in a special event to celebrate the PAN art show.

The art show is organized by the Paris Alumnae Netwok and is open to the public. It is held in a wonderful cosy gallery in Montmartre in "annex 2" across from the famous Paris café "Au Bon Coin" - Annex 2, 29 rue Montcalm, 75018 Paris.

For more information about the Paris Alumnae Network Art Show:

In a friendly, cosy gallery in Montmartre from September 7 through September 15, 2012 - 11 am to 7 pm every day.

Join the Artists for the opening or closing parties:
Vernissage: Friday, September 7, 2012 - 7 - 10 pm
Finissage: Saturday, September 15, 2012 - 4 - 8 pm

Reading from Best Paris Stories with Marie Houzelle and Jane M Handel: September 11 6:30-7:30pm

Au Bon Coin - Annex 2, 29 rue Montcalm, 75018 Paris.

For full details and party sign-up contact person: Sophie Le Cam sophielecam AT yahoo.com (by email only).

Best Paris Stories is honored to be featured in the August 2012 FUSAC, France USA Contacts

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:14:00 +0000

France USA Contacts started out nearly 25 years ago as an eight page free classified ad publication which offered jobs and services for the English speaking public in Paris, as well as fun (and useful) language games. It now boasts 60,000 regular readers and the best distribution network in Paris.

Best Paris Stories is immensely pleased and honored to be featured in FUSAC's summer issue (page 34).

Paper copies of FUSAC can be picked up free all over Paris in restaurants, bookstores, hotels - and even the American Consulate. And one can also read FUSAC online or download the PDF from their website.

In this month's edition, you can read excerpts from four stories: "A Pinch of Tarragon" by Lisa Burkitt; "The Baker of Vaugirard" by Jim Archibald; "Our Pharmacy" by Nafkote Tamirat; and "Frank Stands His Ground, in Belleville" by Mary Byrne

Thank you FUSAC for helping readers to discover Best Paris Stories!

Review "a deeply French yet idiosyncratic sensibility" Hortense on Tuesday Night

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:48:00 +0000

How to cope with the sexual revolution in Paris? A time when women in heterosexual couples are a "sorry, forgotten minority". - Witty and original, Hortense on Tuesday Night introduces a remarkable new voice.

Named a "top five story" by Narrative Magazine!

“Hortense on Tuesday Nights”- had a sparse, mysterious quality which engaged me. The point of view was culturally ambiguous - and distinctly un-American - which I found refreshing. – judge Elizabeth Bard, author of Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, With Recipes

Houzelle's voice is surely unique: a deeply French yet idiosyncratic sensibility filtered through an English that's fluid, penetrating and all her own. "Hortense" takes the reader into a vividly rendered moment in feminist conscious-raising, and even more vividly into the personal perspective of a young woman exploring the new horizons and unexpected pitfalls of relationships among women. Acute, funny and unblinking. - (FIVE STARS) Amazon reviewer

An Amazon Kindle Short Story from Best Paris Stories:

About Marie Houzelle
Born in the south of France, Marie Houzelle writes in English. Her stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Pharos, Orbis, Serre-Feuilles, Van Gogh's Ear, and in the chapbook No Sex Last Noon. She's just finished a novel, Tita, which will be released on September 15, 2014

Short Story: "Our Pharmacy" by Naftkote Tamirat

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 08:49:00 +0000

How to survive in Paris?

"...The pharmacy was Alga’s idea. She had been taking advantage of her free healthcare and a doctor with sympathy to spare by going in for various medical exams almost every week.."

Two African women invent a desperate business plan for survival: "medicine for cheap with people who understand; we don’t need papers and we don’t give them out either.”

"Our Pharmacy" - a short story by Nafkote Tamirat, on Amazon Kindle : France USA UK, a Best Paris Stories selection

Best Paris Stories paperback at The Red Wheelbarrow in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:50:00 +0000

If you are looking for the paperback of Best Paris Stories, you can now find it at The Red Wheelbarrow bookshop in Paris! 22, rue St Paul 75001 Many other terrific books also available!

BEST PARIS STORIES by Jeannine Alter, Jim Archibald, Lisa Burkitt, Mary Byrne, Jane M. Handel, Marie Houzelle, Bob Levy, Julia Mary Lichtblau, Jo Nguyen, Nafkote Tamirat

ISBN: 9780982369852 210 pages Trim size: 5.06 x 7.81 in or 198 x 129 mm

For some, Paris is home, for others, merely a dream. For Gaston, it is a bench, the anchor of his life. For Sue, a romantic city filled with scandalous, dark-eyed men, for Frank an all-consuming fire, for Mme Santinelli a ghost she'd hoped to forget.

By turns humorous, bittersweet, historical or surreal, each of these carefully selected stories invites us to explore a different facet of Paris.

Exciting new voices from the winners of the 2011 Paris Short Story Contest - Paris Writers News

SELECTED BY DISTINGUISHED JUDGES

I chose "The Way You Looked at Me" for its graceful writing and general subject - our differing points of view - and for its powers of observation, and astute cross-cultural detail. (JUDGE DIANE JOHNSON, author of Le Divorce)

“Hortense on Tuesday Nights” had a sparse, mysterious quality which engaged me. The point of view was culturally ambiguous - and distinctly Un-American - which I found refreshing. (JUDGE ELIZABETH BARD, author of Lunch in Paris: a Love Story with Recipes)

I liked the story for its realism, its knowing voice, its discreet sense of humor, its successful reliance on dialogue, and its confidence in its own originality. (JUDGE CHARLES TRUEHEART, on “Our Pharmacy” by Nafkote Tamirat)

I chose “My Sunday with God” because, in addition to being well written and having a strong voice, it felt very fresh to me. (JUDGE ANNE KORKEAKIVI, author of An Unexpected Guest)

When reading this story, I was struck by the narrator's voice, which took me to other times and other places. I admired how the author shed light on the plight of immigrants who come to France and the harsh realities they encounter on the way. (JUDGE JANET SKESLIEN CHARLES, author of Moonlight in Odessa, on “Brazzaville – Belleville Express” by Jo Nguyen

This is a story whose characters emotionally hooked us and we wanted to keep reading. Set in an earlier era added intrigue and grounding while capturing the French primal relationship with food. (JUDGES CHARLES AND CLYDETTE DEGROOT, on “A Pinch of Tarragon” by Lisa Burkitt)

For more on the Authors, Editorial Committee and Judges, click here.

FLASH Cara Black to speak at the American Library in Paris June 6

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 08:17:00 +0000

Best Paris Stories Distinguished Judge Cara Black will talk about Murder at the Lanterne Rouge, her latest mystery from the bestselling Aimée Leduc series. Publisher's Weekly starred review: "Outstanding".

AT The American Library in Paris, 7:30 pm

Scenes from the book launch at the American Library in Paris May 29 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Thu, 31 May 2012 21:13:00 +0000

Many, many thanks to all the wonderful people who made this possible!

Best Paris Story Judge Anne Korkeakivi At WH SMITH Bookstore in Paris Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Thu, 31 May 2012 06:40:00 +0000

May 31, 2012 : Anne Korkeakivi will present her novel An Unexpected Guest at WH SMITH.

Praise for An Unexpected Guest:

“A beautifully modulated first novel… Korkeakivi produces a knowing comedy of manners, a politically charged thriller and a genuinely moving study of the human heart.”

- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“…Moving between the starched-napkin ambience of high-level diplomacy and urgent questions of revolutionary activity, this engaging debut novel gently probes both without forcing insurmountable choices on its characters.”

- Barbara Hoffert, in Library Journal

“Surprising…depth and magnitude… Korkeakivi fluidly fuses the past and the present…powerfully exploring whether redemption from past regrets is possible and the lengths one must go to attain it.”

- Publisher’s Weekly, pick of the week

The challenge of writing about Paris is to keep it fresh. - interview

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:26:00 +0000

Best Paris Stories is honored to present the anthology at the American Library in Paris on May 29th 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris, France.

In this interview, published on the blog of the American Library in Paris, the editor Laurel Zuckerman explains how the collection of Paris short stories was conceived, what the stories are about, who the authors are, and how changes in publishing are offering new opportunities to writers of short stories and novellas.
You can read the full interview on the American Library Blog here.

Extracts:

On the idea behind Best Paris Stories

"The challenge of writing about Paris is to keep it fresh. Writers have been writing about this remarkable city and its people for centuries. What’s changed? What’s eternal? What’s the reality below the surface? How to go beyond the beautiful tourist destination many of us know as expats? That was the starting point for Best Paris Stories."

On the diversity of short stories including in the Paris antholoty

There are funny stories and moving stories. “That Summer With My Dad in Paris” by Jeannine Alter explores a daughter’s journey back towards her father after loss, while in “The Baker of Vaugirard”, Jim Archibald follows a life lived quietly over decades in one small Parisian neighborhood. In “May”, Marie Houzelle plunges us into French academia, while “A Pinch of Tarragon” by Lisa Burkitt takes us back to a time where food meant life. Immigrant Paris offers the setting for Mary Byrne’s “Frank Stands His Ground In Belleville” and “Brazzaville-Belleville Express” by Jo Nguyen....
The stories, like the inhabitants of Paris, are extremely diverse and appeal to different sensibilities.

On how stories were selected

"Judging was something we gave a lot of thought to. It’s really interesting to observe how different readers respond to the same story. Some might love a piece, while others hate it or simply shrug with indifference. If you forget for a moment what you are supposed to like and ask yourself instead what you really enjoy, the result can be surprising—and fun. It’s incredibly personal, a reader’s reaction to a story. Brilliant language, characters who are alive, wit, a distinctive voice, emotional resonance and clever plotting can’t hurt, of course. But they alone cannot explain what make readers connect with a story. So, for us, the challenge was to select stories that met certain generally accepted standards while recognizing – and encouraging – a highly personal response."...

For the complete interview with Laurel Zuckerman, please see the American Library in Paris Blog

Against the homogenization of literature - Jeanette Winterson

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:38:00 +0000

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Jeanette Winterson decried the growing homogenization of literature due to the proliferation of writer training programs.

"The crazy part of it is that we are breeding professional, competent, homogenized writers who will go on to teach writing that is professional, competent and homogenized."

Competence is good. But uniformity is not. This expresses perfectly our concern - and explains why we set up such an unusual selection process for Best Paris Stories.

The Way You Looked At Me, a short story by Jane M. Handel from BEST PARIS STORIES

noreply@blogger.com (Best Paris Stories) — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:14:00 +0000

EXCERPT
“I knew that you liked me,” he said, “it was the way that you looked at me.”
How often was she hearing that these days? It was infuriating. What were her eyes getting up to since she came to France? Had they become promiscuous without informing her? If I wanted to give someone ‘the eye’ it would never have been him, she thought after their date, as she remembered his floppy, lifeless, caramel-colored hair and matching caramel-colored framed glasses.

"The Way You Looked At Me", a short story by Jane M Handel,

now on KINDLE USA, FRANCE, UK

from BEST PARIS STORIES