Views from the Paris Writing Workshop

[Above: From a barge on the Seine, Paris American Academy students watch the opening of the Bastille Day fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. Rumor had it that this torch-like effect was meant to be a celebration of the Paris 2012 Olympics, but was instead used on Bastille Day when London landed the Olympic bid.]

We’ve just reached the midway point of my creative writing workshop at the Paris American Academy, and it’s been a great couple of weeks. Seventeen students from four countries are currently hard at work on their various travel stories, short stories, novel chapters, children’s stories, screenplays, poems and memoirs. We’ve also managed to have a lot of fun around the city, as evidenced by the photos below. Just click on the links below to see pop-up photos of friends, students and colleagues in class and at play in Paris.

• Writing workshop students Lauren Reynolds, Sara Levine, Kelly Watton, Beth Martinson, Carol Bender, and Alan Bender listen to travel writer Jeffrey Tayler’s in-class guest lecture.
• Travel writer Rory MacLean reads from his latest book, Falling for Icarus, outside the famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore near the Notre Dame cathedral. Shakespeare and Company (which was recently featured in the Richard Linklater film Before Sunset, starring Ethan Hawke and Julia Delpy) will be the site of our American Academy student readings later this month.
• Atlantic Monthly correspondent Jeffrey Tayler and his wife Tatyana hold court at last Friday’s soiree in Rolf’s Paris apartment.
• Alan Bender and Allison O’Neill chat it up at the Friday soiree.
• Annette Terkaly and opera baritone Elias Mokole share a laugh. Elias thrilled party attendees and (as well as the neighbors) with his rousing a capella rendition of “O Sole Mio” on Rolf’s balcony.
• Journalist and Bare author Elisabeth Eaves at last Friday’s party. Elisabeth spoke to the nonfiction writing class earlier in the week.
• Golden Globe-nominated film composer Rolfe Kent (Sideways, Mean Girls, The Wedding Crashers, etc.), poses with Alexandra Bockfeldt and Lauren Reynolds at Rolf P’s party.
• Sara Levine (with a ghostly Rolfe Kent) takes a break after sharing a piano tune with the party crowd.
• Kelly Watton and Deborah Patton share champagne on Thursday’s Bastille Day cruise on the Seine.
• Rachael Walter, Matt Kiswardy, and Beth Martinson on the Bastille Day barge cruise.
• Joyce Hardy McDonald shares a smile over appetizers on the Seine.
• Karissa Kary poses in front of the Eiffel Tower before the Bastille Day fireworks, which we watched from our barge on the Seine.
• Jeremy Rizik and friend near the Eiffel Tower, just after the Bastille Day fireworks finale.