A poet needs both something to write about and skill in writing. We will focus on these two themes so important in strong poetry - mastering elements of craft and finding inspiration. Each week we will do some writing in class and a homework task will be set so that we can share what we've written the following week. Teaching will cover how to write stronger poetry and where to find sources of inspiration.  

All levels of experience welcome.

About the Instructor: David Barnes is a British poet who has run a weekly writers' workshop at Shakespeare & Company and an open mike poetry night every Monday (SpokenWord Paris) for a decade. He is the Editor in Chief of The  Bastille, the literary magazine of SpokenWord Paris. His poetry has been published in a number of magazines. He was the co-editor of Strangers in Paris - New Writing Inspired by the City of Light (2011, Tightrope Books) which included work by such writers as Alice Notley, Jorie Graham and John Berger. He has previously taught classes for WICE in short fiction, travel writing and turning life into fiction.

Published seven years before the French Revolution, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' Les Liaisons dangereuses is often lauded as the ultimate epistolary novel.  This disturbing and damning portrayal of moral and emotional depravity in the ancien régime is told through a criss-cross of letters between members of the nobility.  It earned de Laclos a place as one of the most subtle and skilful writers of his era, as well as a ban in France from 1815 until 1875, while the Vatican placed it on its Index Librorum Prohibitorum until 1966. 

Today, the themes of egotism, manipulation, superiority, score-settling and the struggle for power resonate as powerfully as nearly two and a half centuries ago.  The novel found a broader public in 1988 with Christopher Hampton's acclaimed movie adaption, which won three Oscars.

'[Les Liaisons dangereuses] implicates a whole society so founded on falsehood that a single act of emotional truth is tantamount to an act of subversion.’  The New York Review of Books 

‘On peut désormais tout savoir des Liaisons sans avoir lu le roman.  Mais on peut aussi le lire : après tout, c’est l’un des plus grands livres qui soient.’ Catriona Seth.

You may read the book in your language of choice. Discussions are in both French and English. Registration opens Saturday 16 November.

The Châtelet Apprentice: The First Nicolas Le Floch Investigation - Jean-François Parot (L'enigme des Blancs-Manteaux : Les enquêtes de Nicolas le Floch, n°1)

France 1761; Beyond the glittering court of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour at Versailles, lies Paris, a capital in the grip of crime and immorality ...A police officer disappears and Nicolas Le Floch, a young recruit to the force, is instructed to find him. When unidentified human remains suddenly come to light, he seems to have a murder investigation on his hands. As the city descends into Carnival debauchery, Le Floch will need all his skill, courage and integrity to unravel a mystery which threatens to implicate the highest in the land.

'A new Maigret is born: Nicolas Le Floch' --Le Figaro

'An engaging murder mystery that picks away at the delicate balance between king, police and state' --Financial Times

'A terrific debut...working without modern investigative techniques in a police force reliant on torture, Le Floch confronts the ethical dilemmas of the period in a novel that brilliantly evokes the casual brutality of life in eighteenth-century France.' --Sunday Times

About the Instructor: Tracy is a wordsmith with a love of both the written and spoken word. When she doesn't have her head in a book or isn't tapping away writing her next book, she can be found either shopping at a local farmer's market, wandering around a brocante looking for old cookware, vintage china and maps or chatting over a bottle of wine with friends in her adopted French homeland. After spending over 20 years in international project and risk management she moved to the French countryside and returned to her passion for writing and books. Her first short story collections were published in 2015 and 2016, and she is also a book coach, editor and writers workshop leader.

Friday, 10 January 2020

2:00pm - 3:30pm

Cost: Free for WICE members and €5 for guests

Fernando Aramburu has been hailed as one of the most outstanding contemporary writers in the Spanish language.  His novel Patria tracks the psychological complexity of victims and perpetrators and the moral dilemmas they face -- a tale acclaimed for its rich tapestry of characters and exploration of truth and reconciliation.  

Patria won two leading literary prizes in Spain, the Premio de la Crítica de narrativa castellana and the Premio Nacional de Narrativa.  It has been translated into 12 languages.

‘Complex and challenging… exhibiting a kind of sophisticated tidal pattern, with each ebb and flow leaving behind new clues in the sand.’ Washington Post

‘Exercice romanesque tout en finesse, Patria se démarque par la profondeur psychologique de ses personnages. .... Une réussite, à l’évidence. Et une réussite qui nous force à réfléchir. ‘ Christian Desmeules.

Photo credit: Fernando Aramburu

By the author of The Handmaid's Tale and the much-anticipated The Testament. 

Sometimes I whisper it over to myself: Murderess. Murderess. It rustles, like a taffeta skirt along the floor.' Grace Marks.

Around the true story of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the 1840s, Margaret Atwood has created an extraordinarily potent tale. It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers.

'Brilliant... Atwood's prose is searching. So intimate it seems to be written on the skin' Hilary Mantel

'The outstanding novelist of our age' Sunday Times

'A sensuous, perplexing book, at once sinister and dignified, grubby and gorgeous, panoramic yet specific...I don't think I have ever been so thrilled' Julie Myerson, Independent on Sunday

About the Instructor: Tracy is a wordsmith with a love of both the written and spoken word. When she doesn't have her head in a book or isn't tapping away writing her next book, she can be found either shopping at a local farmer's market, wandering around a brocante looking for old cookware, vintage china and maps or chatting over a bottle of wine with friends in her adopted French homeland. After spending over 20 years in international project and risk management she moved to the French countryside and returned to her passion for writing and books. Her first short story collections were published in 2015 and 2016, and she is also a book coach, editor and writers workshop leader.

In 1941, Irène Némirovsky sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. Némirovsky's death in Auschwitz in 1942 prevented her from seeing the day, sixty-five years later, that the existing two sections of her planned novel sequence, Suite Française, would be rediscovered and hailed as a masterpiece.

Set during the year that France fell to the Nazis, Suite Française falls into two parts. The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion; the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation. Suite Française is a novel that teems with wonderful characters struggling with the new regime. However, amidst the mess of defeat, and all the hypocrisy and compromise, there is hope. True nobility and love exist, but often in surprising places.

"Quite outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth" -- Anne Chisholm Sunday Telegraph

"An irresistible work. Suite Francaise clutches the heart" -- Carmen Callil The Times

"The work of a genuine artist" -- Julian Barnes Guardian

About the Instructor: Tracy is a wordsmith with a love of both the written and spoken word. When she doesn't have her head in a book or isn't tapping away writing her next book, she can be found either shopping at a local farmer's market, wandering around a brocante looking for old cookware, vintage china and maps or chatting over a bottle of wine with friends in her adopted French homeland. After spending over 20 years in international project and risk management she moved to the French countryside and returned to her passion for writing and books. Her first short story collections were published in 2015 and 2016, and she is also a book coach, editor and writers workshop leader.