Parisian Literary Salon

Parisian Literary Salon Newsletter- 4 June 09
1. Upcoming Events
2. Salon descriptions
3. Salon in the news, other events & Fall Salons
4. Musings- Bread and Home

1. Upcoming Events
LONDON:
June 7th- Housekeeping Salon Intensive 5-10 PM
June 9th- Last night of Midnight’s Children study- celebratory Indian food dinner & discussion
June 16th- First Short Story Salon- “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin (see Salon description below)
7:45-9:45 Kentish Town
June 23rd- Second Short Story Salon- “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins GiIlman
7:45-9:45 Kentish Town
June 26th Poetry Study at the Dragonfly Organic Café in Highgate 7-8:30 PM
June 28th- Poetry Study at the Torriano Pub in Kentish Town 7-8:30 PM
June 30th- Third S.S. Salon- “A Distant Episode” by Paul Bowles with “The Liar” by Tobias Wolff
7:45-9:45 Kentish Town
July 7th- Fourth S.S. Salon- “The Dead” by James Joyce with “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
7:45-9:45 Kentish Town
July 10th- August 26th Salon closed for summer…reading.

PARIS:
Friday September 11th: Mrs. Dalloway 6:30-11 PM
Saturday September 12th: Absalom, Absalom! by W. Faulkner or The Awakening by Kate Chopin 5-10:00 PM

Sunday September 13th: As I Lay Dying 3-8PM

READING THE BODY Weekend intensive 25th-27th September 220 euro
After a highly successful first Reading the Body weekend, Ann and I are offering a second study. I found the work of this weekend continues to strengthen me as I reach for a closer connection between the work of my mind and the body’s experience. Please scroll down through the Salon website for the weekend description. The cost includes all food, housing and supplementary materials.

To register or ask questions, use the Contact Me form on the website*

2. Salon descriptions
Short Story Salons
Overview: This Salon will provide ideas about how to enter the short story, and find your footing, how to use the tools provided by the writer to immerse yourself in this precise and complete world. We will look carefully at the creation of voice, tone, perspective and setting in the micro world of short fiction.
DETAILS: 45£ for the series, 15£ for drop-in per session. This series has a drop-in option- although your understanding of the form will develop solidly through the four sessions, you can drop-in for a few if your summer schedule is already galloping forward. Please do email me as soon as possible with your registration (at least a week in advance)- these Salons are limited to eight participants. You should be able to find these short stories in a few anthologies- but if you are having difficulties, I will make copies & mail them for 4-6£ depending on the length. The third & fourth S.S. Salon have two titles: the first one is the primary work, the second is optional. We may visit both as reflecting stylistic or thematic qualities, we may find ourselves so involved with the first that we can’t do justice to the second, we may study the first for an hour and then move, without connection into the second. Depends on time, energy and the needs of the group. If we don’t get to the second title, be assured another Salon lurks in the future…
TITLES: I had a terrible time choosing- can I really leave out Flannery O’Conner, Alice Munro, Hemingway? But choices must be made. You will find brief descriptions of the works under What Might We Read on this website…

Poetry Salons
For the poetry Salon, we start with a close consideration of the words and how they are used. This may lead us to the larger question of what the poem does: does a poem, as some have suggested, work to capture human experience at so sharp and close an exposure that in reading a good poem we learn a bit more about the process of being human? Do these poems act in this way? How does this differ from other media forms we encounter? Why should we do the work poetry requires?
Both of these studies take place at venues that I feel will stimulate and expand our study by adding their own character and clientele to the dynamic character of the Salon. Please register directly with me by email reply- maximum 10 participants.
• June 26th Poetry Study at the Dragonfly Organic Café in Highgate Details: 5£ for the study, 15£ study+healthy drink+ evening salad meal…..About and finding the Dragonfly http://www.villagewholefoods.co.uk/about.html
Works proposed for study: -William Butler Yeats’ The Second Coming, Emily Dickinson’s I Started early, took my Dog… and Phil Levine’s They feed They Lion.
That’s right- apocalypse in a variety of forms and images- alongside Dickinson’s intimate theology.

• June 28th- Poetry Study at the Torriano Pub in Kentish Town 5£ for the study, and the cost of the libation of your choice. The Torriano is located 71-73 Torriano Ave. www.torriano-bar.com Last poetry study of the season so let’s end on a high note: Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

3. Salon in the news, other events & Fall Salons
Many thanks to Leah Jewett whose thoughtful article on the Salon appeared in last week’s Camden New Journal- check it out if you haven’t seen it:
http://www.thecnj.co.uk/review/2009/052809/books052809_02.html
FALL SALONS: Now, now is the moment to send I requests…yes I have a list and ideas (Hamlet, God of Small Things, Portrait of the Artist, Beloved, Family Matters, To the Lighthouse…) but would love to hear yours…a Doodle poll (how I love those) to follow.
I have been soaking in the stimulating cultural world of London- getting to plays about Afghanistan, a discomforting and powerful play by Wallace Shawn (Aunt Dan and Lemon)- how does one ever get time to read here? Poetry readings may have a tarnished reputation- but a reading can also expose you to the world of craft and ideas offered by our living writers. Peirene Press is hosting its first event this weekend- I am not sure there is space left, but check out the site and look for future events for mind-charging.
http://www.peirenepress.com/
4. Musings- Bread and Home
Bread and home have been on my mind recently. Home as an idea that we carry with us that may not ever resolve itself into actuality but drives us with its prick of longing and hope- and bread- well, I just love bread. When I travel and am feeling the jittery grating that comes with too little sleep, too many dreams and unsure footing, it is bread that puts me upright. I am always questing for the perfect bread- is it the Pain Gauloius (I know- but it has nothing to do with cigarettes) that I can get in Bourgogne but only if I get to the bakery on time: crusty, seed-filled dark brown bread with yeast flavor unapologetic- or is it the ancient Celtic sourdough- also packed with nuts and mystery seeds? Or the naan I found here in London- fresh from the Indian take-out- warm, oily and ready to support whatever spice comes its way…ahh, bread. I once spent a weekend in the Northeast kingdom of Vermont at the Bread and Puppet Theatre where all weekend we were sustained by red wine, deep brown-black bread- the consistency of bricks- and fantastical puppetry weaving through the woods. Fabulous. I learn from others about eating bread- morning tartine served with overwhelming possibilities of confiture and miel…my dear friend who taught me the wonder of bread with butter and salt shaken on to it…the indulgence (I picked this one up camping in a valley in Turkey, living with a family that didn’t speak English but o, the food!) of fresh goat cheese, local honey and homemade flat bread. Sometimes I think the reason for coffee is to know when to stop eating bread.
Each time I return to Paris or to Bourgogne or to the US, I am torn with missing the lives I have left, and full with the relationships that still hum and grow. Next time the sadness overwhelms, I am going to eat some more bread.
Send me your thoughts, queries, questions and bread stories…see you in the pages-
Toby