So pleased that Moonlight in Odessa is out in French today! Award-winning translator Adéläide Pralon did an amazing job and my agent here in France Lora Fountain and the entire team at Liana Levi have been a pleasure to work with.

We plan on celebrating with Andrey Kurkov, author of Death and the Penguin who is also published by Liana Levi. He will present his new novel at Atout-Livre at 7:30. Stop by and say hi if you are in Paris.

]]> http://www.jskesliencharles.com/2012/02/les-fiancees-dodessa/feed/ 1 http://www.jskesliencharles.com/2012/01/interview-with-lionel-shriver/ http://www.jskesliencharles.com/2012/01/interview-with-lionel-shriver/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:28:58 +0000 jsc http://www.jskesliencharles.com/?p=2861

Last week, I had the opportunity to interview Lionel Shriver when she came to the Library to present the French translation of her novel So Much for That. It was an amazing evening and a thrill to be able to talk to her about libraries, women writing fiction, and book reviews (she has written hundreds). Hope that you will enjoy this mini interview today!

What took you to London?

I ended up there by accident. I’d been living in Belfast for 12 years–where I also ended up in some ways by accident, having arrived in 1987 to set my third novel there, but by 1999 on novel-number-seven I no longer had that excuse. My then-partner had himself put up with Belfast for six years, for me, and when he got a job in London I owed him the accommodation of coming with. Although I don’t have that excuse now, either, since said partner has long since gone his own way.

What keeps you there?

Habit. An entrenched home-away-from-home sense of comfort. A deep, infuriating familiarity (I’m much more conversant with British politics than I am with American ones). Dairy products.

What books are on your nightstand?

“The Flame Alphabet” by Ben Marcus, which I’m reviewing for the Washington Post. “Mr. Bridge” by Evan S. Connell, which I’ve just reread because I’m writing an introduction for Penguin Classics. “Mrs. Bridge,” because I wanted to read both these companion volumes for the intro, but also because rereading “Mr. Bridge” was so delightful that I wanted more. “The Innocents” by Francesca Segal, a young woman I met at the Guardian First Book Prize recently; she knew how much I loved the novel that her own is modeled on, Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence,” and sent me a proof. Ergo, writers, hypocritically, almost never buy books.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

Get on with it.

What advice would you give to beginning writers?

Get on with it.

What’s next?

Fat. My new novel is about obesity.

Jennifer Huxta is an amazing photographer, writer, and teacher. While she was in Paris recently, she taught a writing workshop for teens at the American Library and put together a great exhibit of her work there. I felt lucky to talk to her about Paris, her projects, and photography.

What brought you to Paris?

I studied French in high school and I knew that for the life I dreamed to have, involving lots of travel, I would need to speak French fluently. I knew that only living in France would give me the solid language foundation that I could build on. So after college I put all my strength behind the decision to come to France, worked 3 jobs and saved my money and came to Paris; I was fascinated by French writers and photographers and also curious about the expatriate writers and photographers who came here by chance, by exile, by choice.

At first I didn’t know a single person and had lots of time to walk the city and write and wander and make pictures. At the same time, I had no money, and there was always an undercurrent of fear and worry about money. It was an interesting puzzle, both personally and in the end, artistically, as there was time to explore and ask many questions and make many notes (written and visual). and my personal English language, which at first was full of slang and idiosyncrasy, became pared down so that people could understand me. And the French that I was learning and speaking was at first very basic and simple, so I learned about who I could be without sassy slang and cracking jokes. It was a relief to finally learn enough French to be funny again! and build a French language structure strong enough to hold my personality.

What keeps you in Paris?

I’m always breaking up with Paris and coming back.

What books are on your nightstand?

Travels with Herodotus by Kapuscinski. There’s a revelation on every page. Reborn, Sontag’s journals. Africa United, How Football Explains Africa by Steve Bloomfield. Walter Benjamin’s Oeuvres Volume III. The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank

What inspired you to become a photographer?

After junior high I won a scholarship to an environmental education program about 30 miles from my hometown. I was passionate about the curriculum and I completely fell in love with everyone there–I felt that finally I met other people who shared my feeling of consequence for our actions in the world. I wanted to document every second of the experience and photograph my new friends. I grew up in a rural part of Pennsylvania that was mostly forest and cornfields. Now all those fields are identical housing developments. I was 16 when the “development” started, and I was furious about it; as kids we were always playing in the woods or trespassing in the cornfield. There was a dry creek bed in the cornfield, and it started filling up with old wood, then PVC pipes, leaking paint cans and caulk containers, an oil drum. I brought my camera to photograph the construction debris. That summer, I mailed the photos to the Department of Environmental Resources with a letter notifying them of the site, and expressing concern about river pollution, as the creek bed still ran during heavy rains. A DER representative came to the site in September. Stunned, I saw that the debris was gone, the creek bed had been filled in with earth, the entire contour of the land had been altered. A construction worker marched over, What are you doing here? I immediately asked him what had happened to all the debris that was there. He completely denied the existence of the construction debris and claimed he knew nothing about it. I asked again, “What did you do with the trash that was there!?”

He finally stopped denying it when I showed him the photographs.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

This is what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately:
“The warrior’s approach is to say “yes” to life… We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. When we talk about settling the world’s problems we’re barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.” ~Joseph Campbell

What advice would you give to a budding photographer?

Follow your instincts and Listen inside rather than outside of yourself for ideas and guidance. But also seek out mentors. Dreams become reality but it takes a lot of hard work and tenacity.

What is the best job you have ever had?

I’ve had so many jobs! I’ve learned an indelible lesson from every single one. For awhile in college I worked as a waitress at a vegan espresso bar that was carved out of an old garage in Pittsburgh. All of my friends and I were always hanging out there anyway, hosting poetry readings and DJing parties at night. The owner became a good friend and mentor in many ways, I learned a lot about the self-created life from him.

What’s next?

I’m moving to Nairobi, Kenya to begin a series of reportage photography projects and to continue working with NGOs as a communications photographer.

One of the great things about going to readings is seeing readers connect with writers. When Penelope Rowlands came to the American Library, her fans were there to greet her – and what a treat to see them ask questions and hear what they enjoyed most about her anthology Paris Was Ours!

What brought you to Paris?

I first moved there after college with my boyfriend, who was then working in film in New York City. We’d gone to Bard College in New York State together and there fell in love with the movies of the French Nouvelle Vague. I think we truly expected to fall in with directors we idolized, such as Truffaut, Godard, Eustache, and Chabrol. We were also just after adventure. Like all of our college friends, we headed into Manhattan to work after graduation. Detouring to Paris promised something more exotic.

What keeps you coming back?

It’s paradoxical. Even after all these years, I’m still attracted to the otherness of life in Paris; being there is constantly stimulating. Yet I also return to it as if I’m coming home. It’s the city I’m most familiar with after New York and I’ve known some of my Paris friends for decades. The city feels like the other half of my life. It’s home, and yet not, and I find that deeply inspiring.

How did you decide to put an anthology about Paris together?

A couple of years ago I began to wonder why Paris had marked me so much. I’ve lived all over the place, including England and California, and yet I feel more Parisian than anything else. I wondered how many contemporary writers from around the world felt the same way. I wanted to look at the transformative effect of living in the City of Light.

What were some of the challenges?

I put the book together quickly and on a tiny budget. I was touched by how many well-known writers (Joe Queenan, Judith Thurman, and Stacy Schiff, among them) agreed to contribute in spite of the … um …modest paycheck involved. I also wanted to include a wide range of people, with different nationalities and levels of fame. So, it wasn’t evident, as the French say. I still lie awake wondering about texts I couldn’t find or writers I neglected to approach.

What have been some of the rewards?

Paris Was Ours is a book that makes people happy, somehow, and that’s so gratifying. I think that, because it contains such a wide variety of experiences and voices, many people can identify with it, at least in part. Also, asking writers to weigh in about Paris turned out to be an up. They were universally enthusiastic about doing so.

Did you have a favorite essay?

“Deal with It,” Patric Kuh’s essay on learning to cook in a Parisian restaurant, really moved me — perhaps because, like him, I’d grown up with two passports and parents of different nationalities. (I never knew, as a child, whether I belonged in my mother’s America or my father’s England.) The city Patric describes is the Paris I first knew, that is, very foreign seeming and tough. I admire his piece for the way it pulls you so deeply into another world. And I see more in it with every reading.

What advice would you give to writers interested in setting their work in Paris?

To really spend time in the city and to try to see it without prejudice. One of my goals with Paris Was Ours was to show Parisian life as it really is, good and bad, rather than as people wish it to be. The challenge in writing about Paris is to avoid the clichés. Drown out that accordion music! Forget Piaf!

What is the best advice you have received?

About writing? I guess to keep at it. There have been quite a few times when I was on the verge of giving it up altogether because it’s such a tough way to make a living. But I’m glad I never did. It’s not a reasonable life, of course, but it’s still wonderful. You get to reinvent yourself each day while doing work that you love. So, I’ll take it….

What books are on your nightstand?

I’ve just started David McCullough’s The Greater Journey, and I’m excited about it already, and I’m deeply savoring James Wolcott’s electrifying memoir, Lucking Out: My Life getting Down and Semi-Dirty in 1970s New York. There’s also a Harvard Classics edition of writing by early Quakers – they were amazing – that I dip into from time to time, as well as a memoir by Maisie Houghton called Pitch Uncertain, that I just finished and found truly charming…

What’s next?

I’ve developed a passion for early American history. Who knew? I sure didn’t expect it. But I grew up in an old New York family with a grandmother who regaled us with stories about our ancestors and their friends in the city. I’m now working on a proposal for a book about a little-known episode in the life of one of the Founding Fathers. I’m so hoping it will fly…. Wish me luck!

Lisa & John Vanden Bos

When you come to Paris and you want a job, an apartment, or a date, the best place to look is FUSAC, which is available in print and online. After living in Paris for over ten years (and no longer in need of a job, apartment or date), I still pick up FUSAC every month to check out the gorgeous photos and book reviews. Today, I feel very lucky to interview Lisa Vanden Bos, one of the founders of the magazine. Like me, she spends time in Paris and Montana. Here, we talk about the challenges and rewards of working in France.

What brought you to Paris? What keeps you here?

I came for love… my not-yet-husband John had set up here, he was starting a business on a wing and a prayer or more literally a bicycle and friend’s computer, an idea he named FUSAC (France-USA Contacts originally). I stay because Paris is where we have our livelihood. In January 2012 FUSAC is celebrating 500 issues and 25 years! There are now 3 delivery vans and half a dozen computers. I’ve been in Paris all of my adult life. Not quite French, but no longer really American either.

What books are on your nightstand?

Ride with me Marriah Montana by Ivan Doig & I was a Dancer by Jacques d’Amboise.

How did you decide to start FUSAC?

John had been back and forth between Paris and the US for quite a number of years. While in Paris he taught English and sought odd jobs. Finding housing was always an issue too. Back then you either posted a note with those little tear-off fringe tabs that had your phone number at the boulangerie or on the pell-mell American Church or American Center bulletin boards. He always thought there could be a better system. In 1988 he read an article about a man who created a baseball magazine using a new technology called desktop publishing. DTP allowed the every man to be able to layout pages, something that was previously cost prohibitive for a start-up because it had to be done by typesetters at print shops. The idea of improving on the cluttered bulletin boards joined the new technology and so he created FUSAC. I joined him at issue 10 in January 1989.

What have been some of the challenges and rewards of FUSAC?

The challenges have always been people and rigidity in the French system. People, either clients or staff, come with all their baggage and do not always have the same focus and way of working as you do. For a while we had trouble finding staff that were competent. We had to teach them to use a keyboard and a fax. That of course is no longer an issue, but at the time it meant a lot of time spent training. The other two C’s of hiring people are Character and Chemistry. As young employers we weren’t so good at analysing these two points during interviews, but after more than 200 employees we’ve gotten better at it. The three C’s also apply to clients, not that you choose your clients, but you sure appreciate the one that have the 3 C’s.

The rigidity of the 3-6-9 leases in France and the French labor laws has always been hard to work with too. Neither gives a small business much flexibility to change personnel or location.

The rewards are the satisfaction of creating each new issue. A myriad of details goes into each one and some come together more easily than others, but in the long run each gives the satisfaction of producing a magazine that is very well liked and has helped a lot of people get by in Paris. When my mother meets someone while on a trip overseas, in a New Zealand sandwich shop for example, who knows FUSAC she and we are thrilled. FUSAC is very important in its niche and is still the go-to source for bilingual jobs and housing in this internet age. We’re a little bit famous as Mr & Mrs FUSAC! The feedback we’ve had over the years about the Speak Easy puzzle in each issue inspired us to create 2 books.

Can you tell us a little bit about the Speak Easy book of idiomatic expressions? Idioms and subtler points of the language are what really makes someone integrated rather than simply speaking French.

You’ve hit the nail on the head (pile dans le mille). Through FUSAC we have had years of contact with people wishing to become bilingual French-English. Becoming bilingual is a long road that requires attending classes to learn grammar, language structure and vocabulary, but even after years of classroom learning and having mastered these three pillars we are not still really bilingual. When I first came to Paris I had 4 years of high school French and 4 in college and I felt that even though I could conjugate my verbs I couldn’t have a flowing conversation. Language needs depth and color which come with idiomatic expressions. Because these expressions express what is familiar, they are central to everyday language. They are the cultural part of a language. Without knowledge of idiomatic expressions the speaker cannot become completely integrated. To help the FUSAC readers towards their bilingual goal we have published Speak Easy puzzles in each issue of the magazine. The purpose of these games is the translation and the transposition (because they don’t easily translate) of idiomatic expressions between French and English. The reader chooses the French word or expression to match the English equivalent. For example in English we say “don’t count your chickens before they are hatched” but in French the chicken is transformed into a bear. The French expression is “Il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l’ourse avant de l’avoir tuée” (literally you should not sell the skin of the bear before having killed it). In English we say “It’s all Greek to me”, but in French the Chinese are the baffling ones (C’est du chinois). By playing the games we learn idiomatic expressions which allow us to integrate cultural references to our language in a playful way. The recently published Speak Easy Puzzles book is a second collection of 68 puzzles with themes to make remembering the expressions easier. The new book is richly illustrated with original watercolors. I can’t say I’ve mastered watercolor, but after starting from zero 3 years ago I’m quite tickled to have been able to produce the book – that was the goal. Now I can just paint for the fun of it (pour me distraire).

A personal favorite is the puzzle using dessert expressions which is illustrated with a slice of cherry pie. The French expression of “That takes the cake” is “C’est le pompon de la pomponnette” is fun to pronounce. The first book in 2007 sold out like hotcakes (s’est vendu comme des petits pains), we hope this one does too!

What is the best advice you have received?

The best advice was the three C’s of hiring people: Competency can be taught, but Character and Chemistry are part of personality and can’t be changed. If a person doesn’t gel with the boss or the group right away it won’t work.

What advice would you give to someone interested in starting their own business?

Start small. Don’t grow too quickly or spontaneously. For example don’t increase office space until you are absolutely on top of each other and sure that your business is moving forward to sustain paying the new rent for 3-6-9 years that you will be committed to.

What’s next?

Issues 500, 501, 502… learning pastels and hopefully more books perhaps on language, Paris and our favorite playground Yellowstone National Park. Hiking? History? We’ll see.

Author Renée E. D’Aoust and I met at the fabulous Zurich Writers’ Workshop, where I taught a fiction intensive in May and met writers at all stages – from total beginners to seasoned pros. It was a thrill to receive Renée’s book in the mail and I am delighted to interview her about Body of a Dancer, a book of ten acts and a witty, bittersweet coda.

Renée, thank you for sending a copy of the book! The cover is gorgeous. Were you happy with it?

Yes! I’m very happy with the book and with Etruscan Press. The executive editor, Phil Brady, welcomed the book with open arms. The managing editor, Starr Troup, leads the way with great skill and dedication. Starr designed the beautiful cover. And Julianne Popovec created a warm interior design. Everyone at Etruscan has been super.

What took you to Switzerland? What keeps you there?

My husband took a research position in Switzerland, so I moved across a continent and an ocean for love. I also spend a great deal of time in Idaho on our family’s stewardship forest. I teach online at North Idaho College, and I write dance reviews from Switzerland, so I work wherever I find myself. And I’ve come to love the multiple perspectives from which I now view western culture.

In America, there is one role for every four hundred trained dancers. What does this mean to you? Were you aware of this statistic when you started out?

Yes, I was always aware that my life as a dancer could be over in an instant and that it might not come to the fruition I envisioned. Break a leg, have a concussion, snap an Achilles tendon, don’t get the part; boom, you’re done. The knowledge that there can be an instant evaporation of years of training really focuses your mind.

As a whole, dancers are an incredibly resilient, resourceful lot. I miss the kind of instant camaraderie that dancers often have with each other: “Here are our bodies, let’s move together!” Of course, I’m being nostalgic. The competition is fierce.

Can you tell us a little bit about your book? What inspired this memoir?

In 1997, I started a poem about a dancer I very much admired, with whom I had danced, who ended her life. The poem, “Theatrical Release,” later became part of the genesis of my memoir.

I wanted to fill the void in dance literature about the anonymous dancer. There are tell-all stories by famous dancers, but we lack stories by all the others who fill so many different levels of the dance community: students, their parents, teachers, choreographers, those who train and move onward, and that beautiful dancer in the fifth row of the corps. As I continued the project, I realized the book explores the parallels between dancing and writing, and the pursuit of all creative dreams.

What books are on your nightstand?

Adorni & Primorac, “English Grammar for Students of Italian”

Matt Bell, “How They Were Found”

Pema Chodron, “Practicing Peace in Times of War”

Pete Egoscue, “Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain”

Robert Gottlieb’s anthology “Reading Dance”

Sarah Hall, “How to Paint a Dead Man”

Christina Hardyment, “Heidi’s Alp: One Family’s Search for Storybook Europe”

Richard Horan, “Seeds: One Man’s Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton”

Paul Lisicky, “The Burning House”

Carol Moldaw, “So Late, So Soon: New and Selected Poems”

Hjalmar Olsson, “Kinky Rockcarvings in Sweden”

Marjorie Perloff, “Vienna Paradox”

Poets and Writers magazine

What is the best advice you have ever received?

From my mom: “Butt in chair, pen in hand, paper on desk, write.” Then later, my mom gave me more good advice: “Keep writing.”

What advice would you give to beginning writers?

Read widely with an open mind and heart. Write everywhere and anywhere, for anyone and everyone. Keep knocking on all doors. Be professional. When you take a writing workshop or submit work, don’t be a jerk.

What’s next?

I have readings scheduled in the States after the release of “Body of a Dancer” on December 1st at many independent bookstores that have been wonderfully supportive already. I’d love to teach more writing workshops. As ever, I’ll continue reading and writing and volunteering for Idaho Master Forest Stewards and lurching my way through the Italian language like a drunken donkey. (We live in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland.)

For major writing projects, I have in mind a triptych with “Body of a Dancer” as the first in the series. The second is in the editing stage, and I have started the third about working in our Idaho family forest as a means of encompassing family tragedy.

Recently, we started a quirky family project about our cross-continental cultural experiences, our Swiss and Idaho hikes, our travels, and our rescue miniature dachshund Tootsie.

Thanks so much for interviewing me, Janet! I’ve really enjoyed the process. In case people have not heard, I want to share information that the &NOW Festival will be held in Paris in June. Information is available here.

One of the best parts of my job as programs manager at the American Library is meeting new writers each week as a part of the Evening with an Author series. Next week, I look forward to finally meeting David Downie, an American author and journalist who divides his time between France and Italy. He has written about food, culture and travel for magazines and newspapers worldwide for over twenty years. He is the author of Food Wine Burgundy, Quiet Corners of Rome, Paris City of Night, and Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light. Struggling with my second book, I am in awe of what David has accomplished. Here we talk about how he got to Paris and why he stays.

What brought you to Paris?

I’m an accidental Parisian: my early encounters with Paris in the 1970s left me wondering what all the commotion was about. Pompidou was playing Napoleon III—or Baron Haussmann—and the city seemed like one endless worksite, an experiment in brutalism, populated by people Sophia Loren once described as “Italians in a bad mood.” But in the mid-1980s, rebounding from some challenging years on the East Coast and in Italy, my perspective was different, and the wounds of urbanism had also largely healed. I took refuge in a maid’s room in the 17th arrondissement. It seemed like a good place to write. I’d made no plans and didn’t think I’d wind up spending the rest of my life here. That was 25 years ago. Though I can’t read the future, I have an inkling I’ll be here in another quarter century—if I live that long.

What keeps you here?

A mix of positives and negatives: in balance Paris is still a good place to live and write. The health care has gone downhill but it’s a lot better than anything on offer stateside. Ditto the public transportation and just about everything else that makes daily life in a big city feasible—and pleasant. French elections don’t last as long, either (god preserve us from American elections!). Most importantly, in Paris you’re not measured by how much you earn. Artists and writers—anyone involved in any kind of creative process—continue to enjoy a status in this country that only the rich and the famous and the powerful can hope to enjoy in America.

Ile Saint Louis photo Alison Harris

What books are on your nightstand?

It’s a narrow nightstand. On it is War and Peace—I have no room for other books just now. Reading Tolstoy is exhilarating and depressing: he is simply too good to be true. Piled on the floor by the bed are various volumes: the short stories of Mavis Gallant. She is possibly the best living short story writer working in English. I read and reread Gallant and marvel.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

“Do not go to Paris and try to earn a living as a writer!” A successful nonfiction writer, author of many books and a prolific correspondent for top magazines, urged me to finish law school and get “a real job” in America. He had not read anything I’d written and did not want to read anything I might send him. He meant well and was right: it’s pretty much impossible to make it as a writer, anywhere. That’s probably why I threw myself into the void. Young people do such things. Here I am, no longer young but not dead or destitute yet. The 25-year free-fall has been too thrilling for me to have regrets. What Internet and the “new paradigm” will do to people like me remains to be seen.

Luxembourg Gardens shadows of chairs photo Alison Harris

What advice would you give to a beginning writer interested in Paris?

Stay home and find Paris in your own backyard. Once you’ve figured that one out you might find Paris in Paris—or in Paris. And bring a trust account if you have one. I didn’t. Many budding writers in Paris apparently do.

What is your favorite place in Paris to visit?

Pere-Lachaise cemetery: if it was good enough for Balzac it’s good enough for me. No better place to learn humility.

Place des Vosges in the snow photo Alison Harris

What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing and researching Paris, Paris?

I learned so many things it would take me 1,000 pages and a lifetime to answer you. In fact that was the most surprising thing. Like all great cities, Paris is a deep vein. You can mine it forever. But it’s not static, so the shopworn analogy doesn’t really work. You can come back to Paris after a short absence and find something utterly different from what you left. It’s surprising how full of surprises this old, much-trodden city remains.

What’s next?

May I refer you to my editor and agent? I have one finished manuscript in limbo, a couple of projects I’m shaping into proposals, and am in the rest of my waking hours creating a series of travel websites. All of the above is a serious challenge for a par-blind man of middle age. How could I forget: I’m also nursing along a quixotic effort to transform five of my books already in print into e-books and possibly “apps.” Complicated?