31 January 2015

Literary Paris- February 2015

Literary Paris Calendar February 2015

PART I: Reading and events
PART II: Writing and other workshops in Paris
PART III: Calls for work, new book and publication releases, submission requests

PART I: EVENTS

Monday 2 February @ 19h: Shakespeare and Company presents...Paris Launch of Music & Literature no. 5
To mark the French release of its fifth issue, Music & Literature Magazine is pleased to present an evening of live chamber music, presentations, and readings celebrating the careers of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, Norwegian writer Stig Sæterbakken, and Chinese author Can Xue. This event features a musical program performed by Ms. Saariaho’s longtime collaborator, flutist Camilla Hoitenga, and convenes several of the volume’s contributors, includes conductors Susanna Mälkki and Clément Mao-Takacs; author and actress Florence Delay; stage director Aleksi Barrière; editor and critic Audun Lindholm. Daniel Medin, the co-editor of Music & Literature, will moderate.
Recently acclaimed by NPR as one of the bravest and most exciting literary magazines to appear in recent years, Music & Literature is devoted to publishing excellent literature on and by under-represented artists from around the world.
Shakespeare and Co. 37 rue de la Bucherie

Monday 2 Februrary; 20h30; Spoken Word Open Mic; Theme: ILLUSIONS/DELUSIONS ( those little white lies) Guest storyteller: Kathleen Ragan, editor of folk tale anthologies ”Fearless Girls, Wise Women and Beloved Sisters” and ”Outfoxing Fear”
Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Sign up 8pm to 9.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground.

Wednesday 4 February @ 19h; Shakespeare and Company presents... Daniel Mendelsohn on An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and An Epic ; We’re delighted that Daniel Mendelsohn will be treating us to a reading from his upcoming book, An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and An Epic.
Daniel Mendelsohn, the author of the international bestseller The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, is an award-winning writer, critic and translator. His essays, reviews and articles appear in many publications, most frequently in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and the New York Times Book Review, where he is a columnist for “Bookends.” Formerly the weekly book critic for New York magazine, he is presently a Contributing Editor at Travel + Leisure. His books include Waiting for the Barbarians, How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken, and The Elusive Embrace.
Shakespeare and Co. 37 rue de la Bucherie

Wednesday 4 February @ 19h30; Evening with an Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates, discussing his book-in-progress; Visiting Fellow Ta-Nehisi Coates, reads from and discusses his new book which will be released next October. It is his attempt to talk to his teenage son about the killings of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent at The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood. He is the Library's Visiting Fellow for most of January and part of early February. He lives in Harlem.
(10 euro suggested donation)
American Library in Paris; 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007                     

Wednesday 4 February; 20h; Spoken Word 2: Open Secret; Hosted by David Sirois; Bistrot 82, 82 rue des Martyrs, Montmartre. Metro Pigalle or Abbesses

Thursday 5 February @ 20h – 23h55 PLU Open Mic featuring Jane Ormerod
Every Thursday: if you would like to read, dance, sing or otherwise express yourself, sign up is open and free to all starting at 8pm-ish. We go until we drop – which means all night long! In any language. Or no language at all. No limits. Extreme poetry. Explosive prose. Nudity encouraged.

Jane Ormerod is the author of Welcome to the Museum of Cattle (Three Rooms Press, 2012), Recreational Vehicles on Fire (Three Rooms Press, 2009), the chapbook 11 Films (Modern Metrics/EXOT Books, 2008), and the spoken word CD Nashville Invades Manhattan. She is a founding editor at great weather for MEDIA, an independent press focusing on edgy and experimental poetry and prose. Originally from the south coast of England, Jane now lives in New York City and performs across the United States and beyond. Culture Rapide, 103 rue Julien Lacroix, Paris, Ile-de-france 75020 France. For more info: http://parislitup.com/

Sunday 8 February; 19h30; Moving Parts Script Reading: “Past Times” and “A Long Way to Tipperary” by Anne Walsh
Carr’s Pub and Restaurant; 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris; Metro : Tuileries

Monday 9 February @ 19h; Shakespeare and Company presents...Dimitry Léger on God Loves HaitiGod Loves Haiti depicts the lives of three characters, seamlessly alternating between the before and after of 2010’s devastating earthquake. Haiti is portrayed in all of its complexity—its prideful past as the first nation established by a successful slave revolt, its entangled politics with France and the United States, and its efforts to rise from the ruins to build anew.
Dimitry Elias Léger was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised between there and Brooklyn. He is a former staff writer at the Miami Herald, Fortune magazine, and the Source magazine, and also a contributor to the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Face magazine in the UK.  In 2010, he worked as an advisor to the United Nations’ disaster recovery operations in Haiti after the earthquake.
Shakespeare and Co. 37 rue de la Bucherie

Monday 9 Februrary; 20h30; Spoken Word Open Mic; Theme: Friends/Lovers
Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Sign up 8pm to 9.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground.

Tuesday 10 February @ 20h; POETS LIVE PRESENTS:  WHAT ACTING CAN BRING TO A TEXT with G. Louise Cooper and Zorro Maplestone
An offering of monologues from different time periods and around the world, all of which engage with the natural poetics of language in innovative or confrontational ways so as to bridge the gap between poetry and theatre and see what each can learn from the other. The particular difference between drama and poetry that Lou and Zorro will explore is the idea of the moment of creation.
BIOS:
Raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, G.Louise Cooper began her work in the theatre in community productions at the age of thirteen. Continuing from there she attended Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan where she took a BA in Theatre. In her time at university Lou’s acting work varied from the locally-shot Oz: The Great and Powerful to students films to a four-year run of The Diary of Anne Frank at the regional JET theatre. Her training has also included a course in Meisner Technique at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Simply out of a love for the city Lou has moved to Paris where she hopes to remain, exploring theatrical and artistic opportunities and eventually take a Masters in Drama Therapy.
A bilingual Franco-Australian from a multinational family of artists, Zorro Maplestone has grown up treading the boards, acting in his first theatre production at 6 years old and continuing throughout his education. While studying theatre from 2011-2013 at the Monash University Academy of Performing Arts and directing and starring in 4 major productions with the Monash Shakespeare Company and Monash Uni Student Theatre, Zorro founded interactive theatre company Moosehand Productions in 2012 with friends, producing and directing 3 successful seasons of performances around Melbourne during 2013. Since January 2014, Zorro has left Melbourne to go seek further artistic opportunities in Paris, most recently with Paris Lit Up, a multilingual artistic association promoting international voices in Paris.
Berkeley Books of Paris, 8, rue Casimir Delavigne, 75006 Paris; Métro: Odéon

Tuesday 10 February; 19h30; Panel Discussion: What We Write About When We Write About Paris; What do we write about when we write about Paris? English-language novels set in Paris are a veritable genre of literature until themselves going back a century. This means there are pitfalls and cliches to avoid, and perhaps even embrace, as one pens a story set in the city of Light.  How can one write about Paris without being too self-conscious? How appealing are novels with the French capital as its backdrop, aside from plot itself? Four authors who have set their stories in Paris will speak about the literary and pragmatic issues at stake.
This panel discussion features four permanent and part-time Paris residents— David Benjamin, Meg Bortin, Debra Finerman, and E.J. Simon—answering the question of how to write well about Paris, this city so often evoked in fiction.
American Library in Paris; 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007                     


Wednesday 11 February; 20h; Spoken Word 2: Open Secret; Hosted by David Sirois; Bistrot 82, 82 rue des Martyrs, Montmartre. Metro Pigalle or Abbesses

Wednesday 11 February @ 19h30; Evenings with an Author: Vincent Giroud, Nicolas Nabokov: A Life in Freedom and Music; Author Vincent Giroud joins us to talk about his book in a rare discussion with the subject's son, Ivan Nabokoff.
Composer and cultural official Nicolas Nabokov (1903-78) led an unusual life even for a composer who was also a high-level diplomat. Nabokov was for nearly three decades an outstanding and far-sighted player in international cultural exchanges during the Cold War, much admired by some of the most distinguished minds of his century for the range of his interests and the breadth of his vision.
Nicolas Nabokov: A Life in Freedom and Music follows Nabokov's life through its fascinating details: a privileged Russian childhood before the Revolution; exile, first to Germany, then to France; the beginnings of a promising musical career, launched under the aegis of Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes with Ode in 1928; his twelve-year "American exile" during which he occupied several academic positions; his return to Europe after the war to participate in the denazification of Germany; his involvement in anti-Stalinist causes in the first years of the Cold War; his participation in the Congress for Cultural Freedom; his role as cultural adviser to the Mayor of Berlin and director of the Berlin Festival in the early 1960s; the resumption of his American academic and musical career in the late 1960s and 1970s. Nabokov is unique not only in that he was involved on a high level in international cultural politics, but also in that his life intersected at all times with a vast array of people within, and also well beyond, the confines of classical music.
Drawing on a vast array of primary sources, Vincent Giroud's first-ever biography of Nabokov will be of interest readers interested in twentieth-century music, Russian music, Russian emigration, and the Cold War, particularly in its cultural aspects. Musicians and musicologists interested in Nabokov as a composer, or in twentieth century Russian composers in general, will find in the book information not available anywhere else (Oxford University Press).
American Library in Paris; 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007 

Thursday 12 February @ 20h – 23h55 – PLU Open Mic featuring Ken Parsons
Every Thursday: if you would like to read, dance, sing or otherwise express yourself, sign up is open and free to all starting at 8pm-ish. We go until we drop – which means all night long! In any language. Or no language at all. No limits. Extreme poetry. Explosive prose. Nudity encouraged.

Ken Parsons Maestro of the Underground. He is a Celtic Harper, singer, writer, poet and allround entertainer. What can you expect? Beautiful harp songs, deadly witty short poems and crafted original songs in every posible style, funny, moving, thought provoking. He also plays many traditional songs, chansons and covers from an extensive and incredibly diverse repertoire. From folk through crooners and pop to gothic punk and comedy songs. In fitting bardic tradition he also works as a translator in five languages and sings in many more. Culture Rapide, 103 rue Julien Lacroix, Paris, Ile-de-france 75020 France. For more info: http://parislitup.com/

Saturday 14 February @ 16h – St. Libertine’s Poetry Art Orgy: A bilingual celebration of poetry, art, music and love
Tired of celebrating the platonic idea of Love on February 14th? Want to love 2, 3, 10 people at once? Join Paris Lit Up as we celebrate St. Libertine’s Day 2015 – an evening of creative art and love inspired by the Bacchanalian orgies of old.
Back at the autonomous artistic squat Hangar 56, and together with Slamburger et Haiku, we’re launching ourselves headlong into a night of hedonistic debauchery, celebrating the themes love and sex, kisses and orgies, and all forms of creativity and artistic exchange.
On stage you’ll find romantic encounters where creative disciplines of all kinds meet, touch and caress each other. Free collaborations between visual artists and poets, dancers and graffiti artists, actors and musicians, rappers and sculptors: all forms of diversity and plurality of creation will form a unique artistic orgy.
The evening will feature artworks by the unique brushstrokes of Jb, Zel, Seyar, IchdeRib, Gaït, 36.15, Anne Cazaubon, H31, Camille Oneur, La Faille, Beaucrew and Groove! These innovative artists will be presenting works that inspire love letters and poems by both French and Anglo writers.
Also, be on the lookout for the poetry prostitutes from The Poetry Brothel – you may have the chance to satisfy your deepest poetic desires! Hanger 56, 56 avenue Parmentier, 75011. For more info: http://parislitup.com/st-libertines-poetry-art-orgy/

Monday 16 February @ 19h; Shakespeare and Company presents...Jonathan Beckman on How to Ruin a Queen; Please join us for an evening of scandalous French history with Jonathan Beckman, who will be speaking about his much-acclaimed How To Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette and the Diamond Necklace Affair. This is a tale of political machinations and extravagance on an enormous scale; of kidnappings, prison breaks and assassination attempts; of hapless French police disguised as colliers, reams of lesbian pornography and a duel fought with poisoned pigs. It is a detective story, a courtroom drama, a tragicomic farce, and a study of credulity and self-deception in the Age of Enlightenment. Jonathan Beckman is senior editor of Literary Review. He has degrees in English from the University of Cambridge and Intellectual and Cultural History from Queen Mary, University of London. In 2010, he won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction.
Shakespeare and Co. 37 rue de la Bucherie

Monday 16 Februrary; 20h30; Spoken Word Open Mic; Theme: WAR OF THE SEXES (Feminism uprising) Hosted by Merve (SpokenWord Istanbul) Guest poet Antonia Klimenko
Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Sign up 8pm to 9.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground.

Tuesday 17 February @ 19h30; Evening with Jake Lamar: Brothers in Exile; Join author and playwright Jake Lamar on Tuesday 17 February for an interactive conversation, exploring the creative process behind his play Brothers in Exile - the focus of this year's Black History Month Exhibit.
While inspired by real people and real events, this work of the imagination centers around friendship and rivalry, ambition and talent, as well as commitment and betrayal.
Brothers in Exile is set during a critical era in the middle of the twentieth century, a time when visions of race and colonialism, of capitalism and Communism, of human equality itself, were undergoing a seismic transformation. In few places were the political, literary, and even physical, stakes higher than in Paris. At the center of the story are these three great writers, Wright, Baldwin and Himes, caught up in the furious whirlpool of history.
Hear about the sparks that fueled the project, the surprises along the way, the critical role research played in enabling the protagonists to express themselves on stage - in their own words - and how the play has been received thus far.
American Library in Paris; 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007                     

Wednesday 18 February; 20h; Spoken Word 2: Open Secret; Hosted by David Sirois; Bistrot 82, 82 rue des Martyrs, Montmartre. Metro Pigalle or Abbesses

Wednesday 18 February @ 19h30; Evenings with an Author: Jonathan Beckman, How to Ruin a Queen; Jonathan Beckman, whose How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette, the Stolen Diamonds and the Scandal that Shook the French Throne, was shortlisted for the Library's 2014 Book Award, speaks about this book and the history around it. The Telegraph called Beckman’s book a “rock-solid piece of scholarship, glistening with wit and insight.” About the author: Jonathan Beckman is the author of How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette, the Stolen Diamonds and the Scandal that Shook the French Throne, published by John Murray in the UK and Da Capo Press in the USA. It won the Royal Society of Literature/Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction. Jonathan has degrees in English for the University of Cambridge and Intellectual and Cultural History from Queen Mary, University of London, and is senior editor of Literary Review.
American Library in Paris; 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007      

Thursday 19 February @ 20h-23h55 – PLU Open Mic featuring Dónall Dempsey
Every Thursday: if you would like to read, dance, sing or otherwise express yourself, sign up is open and free to all starting at 8pm-ish. We go until we drop – which means all night long! In any language. Or no language at all. No limits. Extreme poetry. Explosive prose. Nudity encouraged.

Dónall Dempsey is an Irish poet who writes from London and Southeast United Kingdom. He lives alone in London without even a cat! Dónall has read with John Cooper Clarke and Paul Durcan on Irish television and has made two radio programmes for RTE. As the RTE GUIDE so succinctly put it: “the only way to read a Dónall Dempsey poem is to have it performed by the author.” SONATA FOR POET AND COMPOSER was a radio collaboration performed by Dónall and the composer Jolyon Jackson. Dónall had stopped writing and performing for many a long year, but a recent head injury and paralysis caused him to confront this lapse and resume the mantle of poet. I guess if that’s what it took then that’s what it took. He is now manfully working his way through both paralysis and poetry and hopes to get out of one and enter the realm of the other. Culture Rapide, 103 rue Julien Lacroix, Paris, Ile-de-france 75020 France. For more info: http://parislitup.com/

Thursday 19 February @ 19h; Shakespeare and Company presents...Philosophers in the Library presents…Razmig Keucheyan on The Left Hemisphere: Mapping Critical Theory Today
Left Hemisphere offers the first global cartography of the expanding intellectual field of critical contemporary thought. More than thirty authors, along with the intellectual currents of every continent, are presented in a clear and succinct manner. A history of critical thought in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is also provided, helping situate current thinkers in a broader historical and sociological perspective. As the crisis of capitalism unfolds, the need for alternatives is felt ever more intensely. The struggle between radical movements and the forces of reaction will be merciless. A crucial battlefield, where the outcome of the crisis will in part be decided, is that of theory. Over the last twenty-five years, radical intellectuals across the world have produced important and innovative ideas. The endeavour to transform the world without falling into the catastrophic traps of the past has been a common element uniting these new approaches.
Join Razmig Keucheyan as he presents a panoramic account of the world’s leading writers and thinkers.
Shakespeare and Co. 37 rue de la Bucherie

Sunday 22 February; 19h30; Moving Parts Script Reading: “First Came the Frost” by Peter Vickers
Carr’s Pub and Restaurant; 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris; Metro : Tuileries

Monday 23 February; 20h30; Spoken Word Open Mic; Theme: DANCE Guest Maria D’Arcy
Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Sign up 8pm to 9.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground

Tuesday 24 February @ 16h-17h30; A Visit to Papa’s Places: a seminar on Ernest Hemingway’s residences, Nancy Sindelar; A Visit to Papa’s Places takes audiences on a visual tour of the places Ernest Hemingway lived and worked.  Audiences will visit Oak Park, Illinois, Paris, France, Chamby, Switzerland, Key West, Florida, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba and Ketchum, Idaho and consider the impact these places had on the life and work of the legendary author.
 Copies of Nancy's book, Influencing Hemingway: People and Places That Shaped His Life and Work, will be for sale at the event.
To take part in the seminar, in the Library conference room, please RSVP by email to programs manager Grant Rosenberg at rosenberg@americanlibraryinparis.org. Non-members can attend by purchasing a 15 € day pass.
American Library in Paris; 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007                     

Tuesday 24 February @ 19h30; A Panel Discussion: Jessica Levine and April Eberhardt- A Novelist and an Agent Speak; Author Jessica Levine and agent April Eberhardt will talk about their relationship as writer and agent and how it relates to publishing. It promises to be an evening that is a practical guide to getting further in one's writing and hopefully finding a path to publication, as well as just an interesting conversation about one writer's experience in finding and agent and having her book, The Geometry of Love, find success.
They will explore how publishing and the author-agent relathionship has changed from years past and how social media and other factors play a role. 
American Library in Paris; 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007                     

Wednesday 25 February; 20h; Spoken Word 2: Open Secret; Hosted by David Sirois; Bistrot 82, 82 rue des Martyrs, Montmartre. Metro Pigalle or Abbesses


PART II: WORKSHOPS

Saturday 7 February @ 15h – 17h – PLU Slam Poetry Workshop

We’ve got six months until the 12th Grand Slam National in Paris, and this year Paris Lit Up would like to take our participation one step further by having our own slam team competing. The PLU Slam Team will be coordinated by Megan Bullock. The first meeting will be held on Saturday, January 24th from 3-5pm at Le Centquatre–Paris located 5 rue Curial, Paris 75019. Workshops will then be held every other Saturday until June. Come with a slam, original or not. Since slams are just as much about the delivery as the text, the workshops will focus on both production/editing and expression/performance. Anyone who has interest in slam or spoken word poetry is invited to the workshops, though the ultimate goal is to form a PLU slam team to perform at the 2015 Grand Slam. Donations of 3€ to support the team will be gladly accepted. Le Centquatre-Paris, 5 rue Curial, Paris, Ile-de-france 75019. For more info: http://parislitup.com/writing-workshops/plu-slam-workshop/

Sunday 8 February @ 18h30-20h30; The Other Writers’ Group
An excellent feedback workshop for 6 euros.  Join us afterwards for happy hour at The Gentleman, 1 bis rue Hautefeuille, 75006, behind place St Michel.
Shakespeare & Company, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005

Saturday 14 February@ 15h – 17h – Paris Lit Up Drop-in Writing Workshop

Are you a writer? Have you written something that needs fresh eyes? Want some feedback on your work? Paris Lit Up has weekly Drop-in Writing Workshop. This feedback workshop is for any writer – poetry or prose – looking for eagle-eye editing and constructive group criticism of their work. Simply bring up to 2 poems or 5 pages of prose (in multiple copies, double-spaced, 12 pt. font) and our expert workshop hosts will guide the group through a careful reading and discussion of it. All participants will be encouraged to share their opinions on how the work reads, what thoughts it provokes, and to comment on it. The workshop is held every other Saturday afternoon at L’Autre Café, 62 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud (métro Parmentier). For more info: http://parislitup.com/writing-workshops

Sunday 15 February @ 18h30-20h30; The Other Writers’ Group
An excellent feedback workshop for 6 euros.  Join us afterwards for happy hour at The Gentleman, 1 bis rue Hautefeuille, 75006, behind place St Michel.
Shakespeare & Company, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005

Saturday 21 February @ 15h-17h – PLU Slam Poetry Workshop

We’ve got six months until the 12th Grand Slam National in Paris, and this year Paris Lit Up would like to take our participation one step further by having our own slam team competing. The PLU Slam Team will be coordinated by Megan Bullock. The first meeting will be held on Saturday, January 24th from 3-5pm at Le Centquatre–Paris located 5 rue Curial, Paris 75019. Workshops will then be held every other Saturday until June. Come with a slam, original or not. Since slams are just as much about the delivery as the text, the workshops will focus on both production/editing and expression/performance. Anyone who has interest in slam or spoken word poetry is invited to the workshops, though the ultimate goal is to form a PLU slam team to perform at the 2015 Grand Slam. Donations of 3€ to support the team will be gladly accepted. Le Centquatre-Paris, 5 rue Curial, Paris, Ile-de-france 75019. For more info: http://parislitup.com/writing-workshops/plu-slam-workshop/

Sunday  22 February @ 18h30-20h30; The Other Writers’ Group
An excellent feedback workshop for 6 euros.  Join us afterwards for happy hour at The Gentleman, 1 bis rue Hautefeuille, 75006, behind place St Michel.
Shakespeare & Company, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005

Saturday 28 February@ 15h-17h – Paris Lit Up Drop-in Writing Workshop

Are you a writer? Have you written something that needs fresh eyes? Want some feedback on your work? Paris Lit Up has weekly Drop-in Writing Workshop. This feedback workshop is for any writer – poetry or prose – looking for eagle-eye editing and constructive group criticism of their work. Simply bring up to 2 poems or 5 pages of prose (in multiple copies, double-spaced, 12 pt. font) and our expert workshop hosts will guide the group through a careful reading and discussion of it. All participants will be encouraged to share their opinions on how the work reads, what thoughts it provokes, and to comment on it. The workshop is held every other Saturday afternoon at L’Autre Café, 62 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud (métro Parmentier). For more info: http://parislitup.com/writing-workshops

PART III: REVIEWS, RELEASES, SUBMISSIONS


The Poetry Brothel in Paris is looking for Poetry Whores
 For its Parisian event on March 6th, The Poetry Brothel is looking for a batch of poetry whores: male and female, emerging and established, local and international. Are you a poet? Do you enjoy reading poetry in your bedroom at home? Have you ever put on a costume and changed your name? Would you like a glass of absinthe right now?! If so, please send five poems (no longer than two pages each) , your professional bio, a Poetry Brothel "character" bio (thepoetrybrothel.com/meet.html), and a photo of yourself to The Madame at thepoetrybrothel@gmail.com.
About The Poetry Brothel: The Poetry Brothel is a unique poetry event that takes poetry outside classrooms and lecture halls and places it in the lush interiors of a bordello. The clients in the audience can approach the "poetry whores" and for a small fee have a sequestered reading at any time during the event. Of course, any true brothel need a good cover; The Poetry Brothel's is an immersive cabaret, offering a full bar, live jazz, burlesque dancers, painters, and fortune-tellers, with newly integrated themes, performances and installations at each event.
Pour son événement Parisien le 6 Mars, le Bordel de La Poésie recherche des Poètes: hommes et femmes, émergents et établis, d’ici et d’ailleurs. Êtes-vous un poète? Aimez-vous lire de la poésie au lit? Avez-vous déjà mis un costume et pris un nom de scène? Avez-vous envie d’un verre d’absinthe là maintenant tout de suite? Si c’est le cas, envoyez 5 poèmes (de deux pages maximum chacun), votre biographie professionnelle, la biographie de votre “personnage” Poetry Brothel (thepoetrybrothel.com/meet.html) et une photo de vous à lebordelpoetique@gmail.com. Vous serez payés par les clients pour les lectures privées que vous donnerez.
A propos du Poetry Brothel Paris: Le Bordel de la Poésie est un événement littéraire unique qui emporte la poésie loin des salles de classe et de conférence pour l’emmener au coeur des intérieurs luxuriants d’un bordel. Les clients parmi l'audience peuvent se rapprocher des “Putains de Poètes” et, pour une somme modique, s’offrir une lecture privée à n’importe quel moment de l’événement. Bien sûr, tout bordel qui se respecte a besoin d’une bonne couverture: le Poetry Brothel est un cabaret immersif et vous propose un bar bien garni, du jazz live, des danseurs burlesques, des peintres et diseuses de bonne aventure, ainsi que de nouveaux thèmes, performances et installations à chaque événement.
Pour plus d'info:


Paris Lit Up n°3 – Call for submissions
Open from 1st February to 15th March 2015
New forms, bright colors, strange shapes. Paris Lit Up n°3 wants to get lost in your imagination. The third issue of our internationally celebrated magazine is officially open for submissions through our new submissions database. As before, we welcome your words, art, photos, critical thinking, interviews, essays, comics, cartoons, translations and academic tirades – even your collection of porcelain zebras would look great on our shelf. If it can be put on a page… we want it!
Just tell us something we haven’t heard before. Show us something we haven’t seen before. There are no rules or limits at this establishment. We don’t count your words or impose themes; surprise us with your creative prowess! Deadline: 15th March 2015.

Editors: Emily Ruck Keene, Zorro Maplestone, Jason Francis Mc Gimsey, Helen Cusack O’Keeffe, Lauren Purlee. Guest Editors: Jennifer K. Dick, Pansy Maurer-Alvarez. For more info: http://parislitup.com/paris-lit-up-n3-call-for-submissions/

Paris Lit Up Shorts Contest – Deadline February 28th – 1000€ prize
Paris Lit Up is after your best shorts. Short stories, that is. We’re holding a writing contest, shortlisted by our team of rabid avid readers and judged by the esteemed novelist Shannon Cain. We’re looking for stories on absolutely anything: any style, any genre, and any topic. Anything goes – as long as you wrote it.
You can send as many entries as you like but each story costs 10 euros to submit. Minimum word count is 2000, maximum 8000, and we’re asking if you could send your submissions in doubled-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman. This is to avoid any bias against entries written in Comic Sans. We’ll be reading blind so, to make our lives easier and the competition fairer, the document you submit should only include a title and a story – no mention of the author on the pages. Just put your name in the submission notes. Also, you should send it in .docx, .doc, .odt or .txt formats, otherwise we might not be able to read them, which would be a waste of ten euros and a good story.
The grand prize is not only a wallet-pleasing 1000 euros, but the winning entry will also be published, along with the 4 runners-up, by Paris Lit Up Press. The deadline for submissions is February 28th, 2015 at 12h Paris time. The 20 story shortlist will be announced on April 31st, 2015. The winner and runner ups will be announced on May 15th, 2015.
Our shortlist judge Shannon Cain has taught fiction writing at the University of Leipzig, the University of Arizona, Gotham Writers’ Workshop, Arizona State University, and most recently as a core faculty member in the MFA program at Bennington College. In 2012 she organized The Santa Rita Writers’ Workshop. Her first book, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors, won the 2011 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the largest cash award in the U.S. for an unpublished collection of stories. Her work also has been awarded the O. Henry Prize, two Pushcarts, and a fellowship from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts. In 2014, the French government awarded her a 3-year Skills and Talents visa in the arts. In 2013 and 2014, Shannon’s current and former clients published six books; placed twenty-three stories or poems in literary journals; won four national writing contests, were accepted into two MFA programs, and completed one postgraduate fellowship.
Submit HERE: http://press.parislitup.com/shorts/

Paris Lit Up Roman Writing Retreat – Application deadline 15 February
– Only Paris is worthy of Rome,
only Rome is worthy of Paris.
Paris Lit Up is proud to present our first ever Roman Writing Retreat to be held on June 8th through 14th, 2015. Join us as we escape the city for this 6-day writing holiday in the picturesque Italian countryside. Set at the independently owned and operated La Preta Nera country home, 11 applicants will spend one week honing their writing skills through daily group feedback workshops and 3 master classes including our featured author and writing coach, Shannon Cain.
La Preta Nera is a charming traditional house in the heart of the historic center of Giuliano di Roma, in Ciociaria. The original medieval village was built on top of the crater of an extinct volcano and the guesthouse is named after the basaltic stone from the lava flows throughout the area. Like most of the houses in the village, La Preta Nera was built using black basaltic stones, still visible today. Just 90km south of Rome and 30km from the beach, in an area of rolling hills and valleys, La Preta Nera is the perfect place to spend a writing holiday in a natural environment, in contact with the inhabitants of this small village and surrounded by beautiful countryside and enchanting woods.
For more info: http://parislitup.com/paris-lit-up-roman-writing-retreat/

The bi-monthly publication, Belleville Park Pages, calls for writers!             Submission Mission: The Pages are focused on supporting the growth of writers from around the world. We publish all forms: poetry, short stories, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, etc. Submissions will be considered for both print and online publication. Submit your work to: words@bellevilleparkpages.com     

Stop by http://www.bellevilleparkpages.com for more information and to find a Pages vendor near you!