The American Library in Paris

Saturday Series: Super Comics (ages 6–12)
2023-06-10 11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris) | The American Library in Paris
Join Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and Library volunteers for a morning dedicated to comics. Learn the language of comics, comic books, and graphic novels and then create your own.
Children between the ages 6–12 may participate in Library programs on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library. Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Teen Night: Improv with Angelica Brewis (ages 12–18)
2023-06-09 19:00 - 21:00 | The American Library in Paris
No acting experience is necessary to join this theater workshop! Unlock your creativity and get to know other teens in the community as you try out improv games and theater exercises with coach Angelica Brewis. All abilities welcome!

Drinks and light refreshments will be provided by the Library.
About Angelica Brewis: Born in Jamaica, Angelica is a global citizen who has traveled extensively and lived in Canada, the U.S.A., Australia, England, and now Paris. While in high school she took an interest in photography where one of her black and white portraits gave her recognition winning first place. During this time she learned how to develop and enlarge her black and white photography in a darkroom. She went on to obtain a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Photography in Toronto, Canada. After a year working as a freelance photographer, Angelica went back to school to obtain a Graduate Diploma in Education to become an elementary school teacher. She currently teaches at a bilingual school in Paris. Motivated by her desire to continue learning, Angelica recently returned to university to complete an MEd in Developmental Psychology in Education while working full time. This led her to founding an English after school theater activity, Paris Improv for Kids, for students to develop social-emotional learning. Find out more here. Important information:
This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per teen for non-members. Advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. After-hours events for teens, such as Teen Nights, require a signed permission slip, which can be downloaded here. One permission slip is needed per academic year (September–July).
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

History Tour at the Library
2023-06-09 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-06-02 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-05-26 11:00 - 12:00 | The American Library in Paris
The American Library in Paris invites you to register for a History Tour. Come visit us in person at 10 rue du Général Camou and discover:

Our origin story, when our Library warehoused a collection of books donated to the Doughboys fighting alongside Allied troupes in WWI
The establishment of the American Library in Paris as a private library
The famous writers of the Lost Generation (Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, and more) who explored our stacks during their time in Paris
Our Paris Library School, which brought American innovations to French libraries in the 1920s
The true stories of the brave Librarians who kept the Library open during the Occupation of WWII
How the Library has evolved over its 103-year history into the largest English-language lending library on the European continent

All tours are on Fridays at 11h00, last one hour, and take place in person at the American Library in Paris.
Tours are free of charge and open to the public. Pre-registration is required.
This initiative is made possible through the generous support of the Florence Gould Foundation and the American Center for Art and Culture.
Please email tours@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

(In person) Summer 2023 Writing Workshop: Form & Craft Meeting One
2023-06-08 19:00 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Join 2022-23 American Library in Paris Visiting Fellow and author Adrienne Raphel for a two-part writing workshop dedicated to form and craft.
In this conversation and generative session, we’ll be joined by author and professor Andrew Altschul to discuss the writing process from soup to nuts. Altschul and Raphel will lead a reading, a conversation, and a Q&A. Then, they’ll lead a writing exercise, with time to draft in the session and discuss as a group.
About the workshop:
A piece of finished writing can seem like it’s always already been in its perfect form, polished from the moment it sprung out of its author’s head. But behind the scenes, as every writer knows, the final product is only the tip of an extremely complicated iceberg.
In this two-part workshop, we’ll be exploring form and craft, focusing on demystifying the process from first draft through revision and publication. Once you have a draft of something, how do you revise it? How do you keep revising? And how do you know when it’s done?
The workshop will unfold over two main sessions. In the first session, we’ll have a reading and conversation with author and professor Andrew Altschul. In the second session, we’ll continue generating new ideas, and we’ll also focus on how to keep re-thinking prior writing. Each draft will become a touchstone for a new conversation.
This series will take place in person at the Library on 8 June and 22 June from 19h00 to 20h30 CEST and is open to both Library Members and non-members.
About the workshop leaders:
Adrienne Raphel is the author of Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can’t Live Without Them, named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review; What Was It For, winner of the Rescue Press Black Box Poetry Prize; and Our Dark Academia (2022). Her writing appears in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Poetry, and many other publications. She has been a featured speaker at events such as the National Book Festival at the Library of Congress, and she serves as a mentor with the Periplus collective. Raphel holds a PhD from Harvard, an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a BA from Princeton. She is currently a Lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program and teaches with the Berlin Writers’ Workshop.
Andrew Altschul is the author of three novels, including most recently The Gringa. His stories and essays have appeared in Esquire, McSweeney’s, The Wall Street Journal, Ploughshares, and anthologies including Best New American Voices and O. Henry Prize Stories. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford, he now teaches at Colorado State University.
Advance payment and registration is required:
Members rate: 40€ per participant. (Members please register here.)
Non-members rate: 60€ per participant. (Non-members register here.)
Please email Emilie Biggs, Programs Assistant, biggs@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions.

(Hybrid) Entre Nous: The Times of our Lives with Kate Briggs and Yasmine Seale
2023-06-07 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
In Kate Briggs’ The Long Form, a day takes place. A mother wakes up with her daughter, and proceeds to undertake her quotidian tasks. At the same time, she embarks upon a reflection upon the ways the everyday is made. As the rhythms of motherhood prove fertile ground for rumination upon care, love, and creation, the making of the day becomes analogous to the making of a novel, which becomes the material of the novel itself. Briggs seizes upon a lack of action in order to build a space for the slow and spontaneous wanderings of the mind. Navigating multiple levels of storytelling, time, modes of writing, and modes of thought, she elegantly sweeps through the space of the text and the history of the written word as her character sweeps through the house.
About the speakers:
Kate Briggs is the translator of two volumes of Roland Barthes’s lecture and seminar notes at the Collège de France: The Preparation of the Novel and How to Live Together, both published by Columbia University Press. She teaches at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam. The Long Form, her debut novel, follows This Little Art, a genre-bending essay on translation. In 2021, Kate Briggs was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize.
Yasmine Seale is a writer and translator based in Paris. Her essays on literature, art and film have been published in Harper’s, The Nation, Paris Review, and elsewhere. She is the author, with Robin Moger, of Agitated Air: Poems after Ibn Arabi (Tenement Press). Her translations from the Arabic include The Annotated Arabian Nights (W. W. Norton) and Something Evergreen Called Life, a collection of poems by Rania Mamoun (Action Books). She is currently a fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, where she is completing a translation of The Dove’s Necklace by Ibn Hazm, an essay on the nature of love written in 11th-century Cordoba.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Briggs and Seale will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. The Entre Nous series is co-organized by Columbia Global Centers | Paris, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, and the American Library in Paris.

Story Hour: Winged Wonders (ages 3–5)
2023-06-07 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories about birds and other winged wonders. Each Story Hour program features picture books such as Hummingbird by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Jane Ray, as well as songs and rhymes.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and Children’s and Teens’ Services Intern Kelly Cummings. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. Important information:
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Hybrid) Ben Miller on the Bad Gays of History
2023-06-06 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Pride month is populated by LGBTQ iconography, celebrating the figures across history who demanded the right to live and love freely. Yet how is gay history oversimplified when we only spotlight the heroes of the movement? In Bad Gays, authors Ben Miller and Huew Lemmey have the courage to complicate things. Recounting the lives of people who made mistakes, harmed others, acted in contradictory ways, and happened to be queer, they reveal hidden, human nuances across queer history. At the Library, Miller will offer a more critical perspective on the current status of LGBTQ politics, asking who has been excluded from the political terrain, how previous political failures have been glossed over, and how introducing nuance into our understanding of queer identity can lead to a more just queer future.
About the speaker:
Ben Miller is a writer and historian living in Berlin. With Huw Lemmey, he hosts Bad Gays, a podcast about evil and complicated queers in history, which has been downloaded nearly a million times; a book based on the show and passionately arguing for a more complex and political queer public history, Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, was published by Verso in 2022. Since 2018, he has been a member of the board of the Schwules Museum, the world’s largest independent institution devoted to archiving and preserving LGBTQI* histories and visual cultures.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Miller will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Saturday Series: Design-Your-Own Book Cover (ages 6–12)
2023-06-03 11:00 - 12:00 | The American Library in Paris
Create an original book cover for a story you love! Front of House Assistant Sinamen MaGee will host this event with Library volunteers. All supplies will be provided by the Library.

Children between the ages 6–12 may participate in Library programs on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library. Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Teen Night: Mystery Writing with Noah Weisz (ages 12–18)
2023-06-02 19:00 - 21:00 | The American Library in Paris
In this workshop with Noah Weisz participants will learn about structure, suspicion, and suspense while exploring the craft secrets of clues and red herrings. You’ll get to plan out and draft part or all of your own mystery short story—and before the workshop’s over, we’ll try to crack each other’s cases!
About Noah Weisz: Noah Weisz is a fiction writer and dedicated educator with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and over nine years’ experience helping students of all ages unleash the stories they have inside. Noah’s own writing for children and young adults has been widely published in literary magazines and has won the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award, the Katherine Paterson Prize for middle-grade fiction, the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award, and the F(r)iction Short Story Contest. He is also a three-time finalist for the Bath Children’s Novel Award. Originally from Washington, DC and a recent arrival in Paris, he currently teaches creative writing workshops and courses at several venues including the International School of Paris and Collège Sévigné. You can find out more about him here.

Important information:
This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per teen for non-members. Advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. After-hours events for teens, such as Teen Nights, require a signed permission slip, which can be downloaded here. One permission slip is needed per academic year (September–July).
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Toddler Time (ages 1–3)
2023-06-01 11:00 - 11:30 | The American Library in Paris
Stories featured during our Toddler Time programs include short picture books and board books, such as Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, illustrated by Kadir Nelson which will be included in this 1 June event.
Our Toddler Time is for children ages 1–3 and their caregivers, and lasts 30 minutes. This session will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads. Each child must be accompanied by an adult chaperone, and chaperones are required to remain with their children for the duration of the program. Parents and caregivers are expected to sit with their children beside them, or in their laps, and participate in the program. Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Story Hour: Money Matters (ages 3–5)
2023-05-31 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories about money, saving, estimating, and how to imagine numbers. Each Story Hour program features short picture books such as A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams, as well as songs and rhymes.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services staff and volunteers. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. Important information:
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Hybrid) Felwine Sarr on Africa’s Struggle for its Art
2023-05-30 19:30 - 20:30 | https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83752125235
In recent years, following social justice movements, the question of the place of stolen African art in European museums has become increasingly urgent. In France, a reassessment of French universalism has brought the question of restitution to a possible turning point: Macron’s headline-making 2017 declaration that France must recognize its colonial past was followed by an equally landmark report on the restitution of stolen African art, written by art historians Bénédicte Savoy and Felewine Sarr. In conversation with journalist Rachel Donadio, Sarr will discuss the monumental report and its consequences. What were the consequences of its publication? Were Macron’s words just empty speech? What happens now? From the Smithsonian to the Louvre, Sarr will explain how substantial change, from the contents of permanent collections to the ways we define art, is coming for major cultural institutions.
About the speakers:
Felwine Sarr is a Senegalese writer and academic. He is Anne-Marie Bryan Distinguished Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University in North Carolina, after having taught at University Gaston Berger at Saint-Louis in Senegal, where he is adjunct professor of Economics. In 2018, the French president commissioned him to write a report, with the art historian Benedicte Savoy, on the restitution of African heritage present in French museums. He has authored thirteen works and is the co-publisher with his publishing house Jimsaan of the Prix Goncourt 2021, La plus secrète mémoire des hommes by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.
Rachel Donadio is a Paris-based writer and journalist, a contributing writer for the Atlantic, and a former Rome Bureau Chief and European Culture correspondent for the New York Times. She regularly publishes textured profiles and features at the intersection of culture and politics, as well as literary criticism. Since 2022 she has been the administrator of the American Library in Paris annual Book Award.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Sarr and Donadio will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

BookTok Trivia (ages 12–18)
2023-05-28 14:00 - 15:00 | The American Library in Paris
Join Assistant Children’s and Teens’ Services Librarian Jason Hazard for an hour of trivia based on the biggest books on TikTok and Instagram. Important information:
This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per teen for non-members. Advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons.
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Battle of the Books (ages 6–12)
2023-05-27 11:00 - 12:00 | The American Library in Paris
Join us for a morning of friendly competition! Children and their grown-ups will be placed in teams to complete trivia challenges all about children’s books—from picture books by Eric Carle to novels-in-verse such as Brown Girl Dreaming, and graphic novels like Guts.
Prizes will be awarded!
Caregivers are encouraged to participate in this event with their children. Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Environmental Economics with Bianca Getzel, Marlowe Hood, and Juan Pablo Arellano
2023-05-25 19:00 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Whether degrowth or green growth, the circular economy or the end of the capitalist economy as we know it, environmental economics, the study of how we use and manage finite resources, help us understand negative externalities, public goods, and market failures.
This event is organized in partnership with News Decoder and the Climate Academy at the European School of Brussels.
The Library’s contribution to this joint program is supported by the Florence Gould Foundation and the American Center for Arts and Culture.
Please note the special start time of this event.
About the speakers:
Bianca Getzel is a Research Officer in the Development and Public Finance Programme at global affairs think tank ODI.
Marlowe Hood is Senior Editor at Agence France-Presse, covering science, environment, and the climate crisis.
Juan Pablo Arellano is a former content director at ClimateScience, specializing in creating accessible and trustworthy content on climate change solutions. He studied economics and environmental science at university and is currently pursuing a master’s degree on degrowth.
Important information: This conversation will be hybrid, taking place both in person at the American Library in Paris and online.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

Toddler Time (ages 1–3)
2023-05-25 11:00 - 11:30 | The American Library in Paris
Stories featured during our Toddler Time programs include short picture books and board books, such as Puppy Truck by Caldecott Honor recipient Brian Pinkney, which will be included in this 18 May event.
Our Toddler Time is for children ages 1–3 and their caregivers, and lasts 30 minutes. This session will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads. Each child must be accompanied by an adult chaperone, and chaperones are required to remain with their children for the duration of the program. Parents and caregivers are expected to sit with their children beside them, or in their laps, and participate in the program. Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Hybrid) Breaking the Silence on Menopause with Dr. Mary Claire Haver and Kate Muir
2023-05-24 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Menopause occurs in every menstruating body. Yet few know what to expect when they begin experiencing it, and even fewer understand the science behind the process. Lack of research and cultural taboos around discussions of menstruation have contributed to a general cultural ignorance surrounding the subject, which translates into ill-preparedness and inadequate treatment when it happens. Dr. Mary Claire Haver, MD, has devoted her life to developing nutrition strategies aimed at combating the adverse effects of menopause-induced hormonal changes. Kate Muir has written books and produced documentaries on the subject, aiming to promote awareness and challenge the Together, the two women will discuss the reality of menopause, the stigmas associated with talking about it, and the importance of breaking the silence.
About the speakers:
Dr. Mary Claire Haver is a wife, mom, Board Certified OBGYN, entrepreneur and best- selling author of The Galveston Diet, who has devoted her adult life to women’s health and the treatment of perimenopause and menopause. Dr. Haver believes in the power of nutrition and anti- inflammatory foods to combat midlife inflammation and highly recommends the unique benefits of intermittent fasting. She is a leading voice on social media in the realm of menopause education.
Kate Muir is a menopause expert, writer and filmmaker. She is the author of Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause (but were too afraid to ask) and the producer of three groundbreaking Davina McCall women’s health documentaries, including Sex, Myths and the Menopause for Channel 4 in the UK. Her next book is on the contraceptive pill.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Haver will appear in the Reading Room and Muir will appear over Zoom), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Story Hour: Share a Smile (ages 3–5)
2023-05-24 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories about kindness, and caring for each other. Each Story Hour program features short picture books such as Because Amelia Smiled by David Ezra Stein, as well as songs and rhymes.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads and the Children’s and Teens’ Services Intern. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. Important information:
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(Hybrid) The Task of Translation with Cécile Wajsbrot, Tess Lewis, and Anne Weber
2023-05-23 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
In Cecile Wajsbrot’s Nevermore, a translator haunted by her past moves to a town with its own dark history in order to begin a translation of Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse. Working on Woolf’s chapter “Time Passes,” she undertakes her own meditation upon the passage of time and the movement of history. Confronting the violent scars of World War II in Woolf’s writing and in Dresden, her new home, our narrator experiences a fusion of the space of the novel with the space around her. As a translator, she is trained to navigate different worlds. Yet with this project, she risks losing herself entirely in this new realm where time, space, and language–much like waves at sea–overlap. Wajsbrot will speak with translators Anne Weber and Tess Miller about the task of the translator, finding the language to recreate destroyed epochs, and the fragile boundaries between literature and life.
About the speakers:
Cécile Wajsbrot was born in Paris in 1954. She writes mostly novels, sometimes essays and radio fictions. She is also a translator, from the English (for instance Virginia Woolf) and from the German. Her latest novel, Nevermore, published in 2021, deals with the process of translation. For more than twenty years she has been living in Paris and Berlin.
Tess Lewis is a writer and translator from French and German. Lewis is a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and was awarded the ACFNY Translation Prize and the 2017 PEN Translation Prize for her translation of the novel Angel of Oblivion by Maja Haderlap.
Anne Weber is a German-French author and translator based in Paris. She has received the 3Sat award at the Festival of German-Language Literature as well as a European translation award for her translation of Pierre Michon. Her most recent novel, Epic Annette, won the 2020 German Book Prize. She was awarded the 2022 Leipzig Book Fair Prize in Translation for her German version of NEVERMORE.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Wajsbrot, Lewis, and Weber will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Saturday Series: Humans vs. Zombies (ages 6–12)
2023-05-20 11:00 - 12:00 | The American Library in Paris
Learn about zombies from literature with Front of House Assistant Sinamen McGee, and then try out our original book-inspired game to see if you can beat the zombies!

Children between the ages 6–12 may participate in Library programs on their own, while their chaperone remains inside the Library.
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Teen Night: Movies Based on Books (ages 12–18)
2023-05-19 19:00 - 21:30 | The American Library in Paris
Join us for a movie night! Vote on the film you’d like to watch when you register for this event. Participate in trivia based on movies at the start of the evening, then settle in with popcorn and enjoy a screening of a film in the Library’s comfortable reading room. We’ll discuss the film as a group at the end of the night.
This event will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads, with the help of Library volunteers.
Drinks and light snacks will be provided. Important information:
This event is free for Library members, and 15€ per teen for non-members. Advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. After-hours events for teens, such as Teen Nights, require a signed permission slip, which can be downloaded here. One permission slip is needed per academic year (September–July).
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

(In Person at the Center for Fiction) The International Library Part I: Notes on Sugar
2023-05-18 19:30 - 20:30 | The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
In person at the Center for Fiction (Brooklyn, NY) and over Zoom, join celebrated Swiss author Dorothee Elmiger and American writer Kate Zambreno for a conversation about Megan Ewing’s new English translation of Elmiger’s Out of the Sugar Factory (Aus der Zuckerfabrik).
In an era of greed and lust, power and excess, Out of the Sugar Factory plumbs the impact of the sugar manufacturing industry through a kaleidoscope of memories, dreams, literary references, narrative threads, and historical fragments. From the Haitian Revolution and Chantal Akerman, to Karl Marx, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence, Elmiger compiles a journal of reflections on global systems of capital through the medium of her personal patterns of experience. At a time when this critical historical lens is under attack across the U.S., we can look to Elmiger’s work as inspiration to keep revising old stories we have told until now.
About the speakers:
Dorothee Elmiger was born in 1985 in Switzerland. She is the author of Out of the Sugar Factory, Shift Sleepers, and Invitation to the Bold of Heart. She lives in New York City.
Kate Zambreno is the author most recently To Write As If Already Dead, a study of Hervé Guibert (Columbia University Press), and the novel Drifts (Riverhead). The Light Room, a meditation on art and care, is forthcoming from Riverhead in July 2023. A collaborative meditation on tone in literature with Sofia Samatar is forthcoming from Columbia University Press in fall 2023. A 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in Nonfiction, she teaches in the MFA nonfiction program at Columbia University and is the Strachan Donnelley Chair in Environmental Writing at Sarah Lawrence College.
Important information: The discussion will take place at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York. The conversation will be streamed on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Access to this event requires registration through the Center for Fiction. Click on the button below to RSVP.
About The International Library
Conversations across time, place, and language
Join the American Library in Paris, the Center for the Art of Translation, and The Center for Fiction for conversations across time, place, culture, and literary tradition, with live audiences in San Francisco, Brooklyn, and Paris.
At the intersection of theory and practice, past and present, as well as story and history, The International Library celebrates the live diffusion of in-person conversations in the hope of conjuring new possibilities and connecting new audiences across land and sea for a collective, intercultural experience.
Over the course of these conversations, we hope to broach the following questions about writing and translation: Who gets to translate? To be translated? How to translate? And for whom to translate? More broadly, the series will guide readers to think critically about how stories are told, investigating the points of view, the timing of the translations, and the intended or assumed audiences as well as inspiration, philosophy, and craft.
All meetings will be hybrid, taking place in person at The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn (1:30pm ET) with audiences at the American Library in Paris (in Paris; 19h30 CEST) and the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco (10:30am PT) for a live streaming experience. Events will run for about an hour.
Please write to Alice McCrum (mccrum@americanlibraryinparis.org), Melanie McNair (melanie@centerforfiction.org), or Leslie-Ann Woofter (leslie-ann@catranslation.org) with any questions or thoughts.

Library is closed
2023-05-18

(Hybrid) The Humanities in Crisis? with Merve Emre
2023-05-17 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
In anticipation of Merve Emre’s forthcoming monograph, Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, join Emre for a discussion about two curious and much-discussed phenomena. On the one hand, veritable crisis within the academy: against a backdrop of program closures, decreasing student enrollments, and budget cuts, the study of English and history at the collegiate level in America has fallen by a third over the last decade. On the other hand, flourishing outside the classroom walls: professional schools in medicine, law, and business have emerged as new sites for literary study and teaching, drawing productive links between reading literature and in-the-world practice. How did this happen? And what will happen next?
Merve Emre is Professor of Criticism at Wesleyan University and Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. She is the author and editor of several books, including Paraliterary, The Ferrante Letters, The Personality Brokers, and The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway, and a contributing writer at the New Yorker. She is working on two books: one on love; the other on the discipline of literary studies.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Emre will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Story Hour: Birthdays (ages 3–5)
2023-05-17 14:30 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
For this Story Hour, we’ll read stories about birthdays and birthday celebrations. Each Story Hour program features short picture books such as I Got a Chicken for My Birthday by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Sarah Horne, as well as songs and rhymes.
This Story Hour will be hosted by Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager Celeste Rhoads. They will read books and lead you and your little one in songs and hand-rhymes during a live, interactive session. This participatory program is intended to encourage children to actively engage with stories. Plan to join in, sing along, and move around, and model movement and listening for your little one. We ask that all caregivers put away their phones and other electronic devices for the duration of this program. Important information:
Important information: This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. Caregivers are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.

Word for Word 2023 at Théâtre Le Ranelagh (Paris 16)
2023-05-16 19:30 - 21:30 | Théâtre le Ranelagh, 5 rue des Vignes, Paris, 75016, France
Word for Word presents
Home by George Saunders
Directed by Sheila Balter
THIS EVENT IS OFF-SITE, AT THÉÂTRE LE RANELAGH (5 Rue des Vignes, 75016 Paris)
Home is the story of Mikey, a war veteran returning to a home that is increasingly cruel and absurd—and his quest for understanding and compassion. Saunders’ subtle yet absurdist humor brings a unique slant to otherwise dark topics. Home is directed by Word for Word core company member Sheila Balter.
This event requires advance registration. Please reserve your tickets below and bring your printed ticket to the show. This event is sponsored by the American Library in Paris, the Fondation Jeannine Manuel, and Word for Word Performing Arts Company.
WORD FOR WORD Performing Arts Company performs short works of fiction in their entirety, preserving the author’s voice and honoring her/his intent with exciting visuals and inventive staging. Founded in 1993 by Susan Harloe and JoAnne Winter, Word for Word believes in the power of the short story to provide solace, compassion, and insight into our daily lives. In its vibrant history, Word for Word has performed over 70 stories by some of the world’s best writers. Many of these stories have been performed in front of the authors themselves.
George Saunders is the author of twelve books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for best work of fiction in English, and was a finalist for the Golden Man Booker. His stories have appeared regularly in the New Yorker since 1992. He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the PEN/Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, he was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

(Hybrid) Jami Attenberg and Lauren Collins on Writing Through Life
2023-05-16 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Celebrated novelist Jami Attenberg’s new memoir I Came All This Way to Meet You details a life on the road and the many ways one can create a home. An invigorating race through the varied places and spaces temporarily inhabited by Attenberg before moving on, the book celebrates the rejection of a conventional life in favor of spontaneity and creativity. Throughout it all, we learn, Attenberg found solace in writing: in lieu of a static life, she sought stability in the practice of her craft. Though her subjects and techniques have changed across time, the very activity of putting the pen to paper has remained constant. Attenberg, in conversation with author Lauren Collins, will discuss the meandering trajectory of life and the many roads taken to arrive back at herself.
About the speakers:
Jami Attenberg is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books of fiction, including The Middlesteins and All Grown Up, and, most recently, a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. She has written for the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times, and the Guardian. Her work has been published in sixteen languages. She is also the creator of the annual online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer. She lives in New Orleans.
Lauren Collins began contributing to the New Yorker in 2003 and became a staff writer in 2008. She is the author of When in French: Love in a Second Language, which the Times named as one of its 100 Notable Books of 2016. She is working on a second book, about a coup d’état perpetrated by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898, and its effects on the city during the past 120 years.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Attenberg and Collins will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

The Vocabulary of U.S. College Admissions with College Goals (ages 12–adult)
2023-05-14 14:00 - 15:30 | The American Library in Paris
Given the demands of the American university application process, students interested in pursuing higher education in the U.S. are well advised to begin preparing early in their high school career for its demands, perhaps even before they embark on their final two years of study toward the French bac or IB. In this presentation with guests from College Goals, teens and their parents will explore the application and admissions process for US colleges and universities and how best to prepare. What do families need to know for their students to be successful and satisfied by the university search and application process? How can students produce a strong and interesting U.S. university application? In the first of a series of presentations on aspects of the American college application process, College Goals’ counselor, Andrea van Niekerk will discuss the concepts, language, and protocols students need to be aware of if they hope to apply to US institutions.

About Andrea van Niekerk: Andrea served for a decade as Associate Director of Admission, with a focus on international applicants, and as Freshman Academic Adviser at Brown University, and as Residential Fellow in a dorm at Stanford. Still based in Silicon Valley, she now works with both American and international families as part of College Goals. Andrea has over 20 years of experience in college admission and academic advising. She is a member of NACAC, HECA and WACAC.
About College Goals: College Goals is a university admission consulting practice specializing in counseling families interested in higher education opportunities in the US and in English-medium universities around the world. The team of counselors collectively offers decades of professional experience in higher education. College Goals provides expert counsel and support throughout the college search and application process, including choice of appropriate institutions, test requirements, recommendations and interviews, essay writing, and the preparation of distinguished applications. Find out more at www.collegegoals.com
Important information:
This event is for Library members, and advance registration is required. All visitors are expected to familiarize themselves with the Library Policy for Children and the Rules and Code of Conduct so that we can provide a pleasant library environment for all patrons. After-hours events for teens, such as Teen Nights, require a signed permission slip, which can be downloaded here. One permission slip is needed per academic year (September–July).
Questions about collections and programs for children and teens can be sent to the Library’s Children’s and Teens’ Services Manager, Celeste Rhoads: celeste@americanlibraryinparis.org.
