The Library will be closed on the following days in May:
Wednesday 1 May – Fête du Travail (Labor Day)
Wednesday 8 May – Fête de la Victoire 1945 (WWII Victory Day)
Thursday 9 May – Jeudi de l’Ascension (Ascension)
Creative Nonfiction Workshop with Susan Harlan: Writing Personal Essays and Memoir
What are personal essays and memoir, and why do we write them? This workshop will help you build confidence in your own voice and your ability to transform your thoughts, impressions, and experiences into narrative. We will ask: What is your writing about, and how can you communicate this to your readers? We’ll talk about what Vivian Gornick calls “the situation and the story,” and we’ll discuss structure and organization (especially beginnings and endings), concrete detail (and omission!), and the role of memory in writing. We’ll read several short pieces together and use in-class writing exercises as a way to build towards larger projects.
Susan’s essays have appeared in venues including The Guardian US, The Paris Review Daily, Guernica, Roads & Kingdoms, Literary Hub, The Common, Racked, The Brooklyn Quarterly, The Bitter Southerner, and Public Books. Her book Luggage (Bloomsbury, 2018) takes readers on a journey with the suitcases that support, accessorize, and accompany our lives. She also writes satire for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Billfold, Avidly, Queen Mob’s Tea House, The Hairpin, The Belladonna, Janice, and The Establishment, and her humor book Decorating a Room of One’s Own: Conversations on Interior Design with Miss Havisham, Jane Eyre, Victor Frankenstein, Elizabeth Bennet, Ishmael, and Other Literary Notables was published by Abrams last October. She teaches English literature and creative nonfiction at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.
Photo by Sarah Torretta Klock.
This event runs from 14h00-16h00 on Saturday 30 November and requires advance registration. It is open to Library members (15 euros) and non-members (25 euros). Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfffzyP8W0lyxf0fmBw-HzDuOG6vWOCerzpnQqqHkWewVjtg/viewform?usp=sf_link
Susan will also be speaking at the Library on Tuesday 26 November (no advance registration required): https://americanlibraryinparis.org/event/an-evening-with-susan-harlan/
The Library will be closed on the following days in May:
Wednesday 1 May – Fête du Travail (Labor Day)
Wednesday 8 May – Fête de la Victoire 1945 (WWII Victory Day)
Thursday 9 May – Jeudi de l’Ascension (Ascension)
Friends of the Library (50€ – 249€) will receive invitations to unique, donor-only programs.
Folio Society (250€ – 1 999€) supporters will be invited to the annual Book Award ceremony, as well as donor-only programs.
Gutenberg Society (2 000€ – 9 999€) patrons will have the opportunity to host a dinner with an Evenings with an Author sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg speaker, as well as all the benefits listed above.
Ex Libris Lux Society (10 000€ and above) sponsors will be invited to an annual dinner with Ex Libris Lux donors and Library leadership, as well as all the benefits listed above. They will also be invited to an exclusive cocktail dînatoire with our Gala speaker.
A charitable gift from your estate is simple to implement and is easy to change if you should need to access the assets during your lifetime. If you would like to include a gift to the Library in your will, ask your estate planning attorney to add this suggested wording to your will or living trust. Please make sure to use the Library’s correct legal name appears in all final documents as: The American Library in Paris Inc.
Unrestricted Gift: I give, devise, and bequeath to the American Library in Paris Inc, (insert dollar amount) Dollars* to be used for its general purposes.
Residuary Bequest: I give, devise, and bequeath to the American Library in Paris Inc , (insert percentage amount) percent of the residue of my estate to be used for its general purposes.