A bilingual reading

Its not so often that we have bilingual readings, RWB being an anglo-phone bookstore. However we do make certain exceptions, the most recent being the reading with poets Marilyn Hacker and Marie Etienne. Their book, which is a translation by Marilyn of Marie Etienne's poems is called King of a Hundred Horsemen. It was published to great critical acclaim and has since publication won two prizes for translation. Its a wondrous collection of poems, taking the form of cycles that themselves form a coherent and beautiful whole. Much of the poems read that night were those that focused on natural themes like birds which for a time greatly fascinated Marie. I have to confess that I didn't know Marie Etienne's poetry till the night of the reading and thanks to Marilyn's masterful translation, I was glad to make my acquaintance with her poems!

Here's a picture of our great audience who considerably livened up the reading with their interested and interesting questions!

Finally, some news

A million apologies for not having updated the blog in ages. Due to some technical difficulties (first my computer, then our internet connection went awry), I was unable to write about some of the great things that have been going on at RWB. You may remember that we were very excited about our June events and they were certainly something to write about. So without further ado, here are a few photos from our events last June 7.

To start off the festivities of the Paris en Toutes Lettres, we decided to ask the lovely Anne Marsella to read from her new novel Patsy Boone. As always with Anne, the event was lovely, with people asking interested questions. We're all waiting for her upcoming novel called Baby from Belleville.



Our audience included Paul Schmidtberger, himself a published novelist


We were surprised (pleasantly) when Anne decided to ask a friend to play some music for her reading. A surprising choice but one that added an extra fun element to her reading..


We had just finished with the first one when it was time for the next event...this time a book about an elusive piano shop somewhere in the left bank...

Here's Penelope introducing our next writer and his best selling book....


Thad Carhart told us this funny story about a confusion between his book and one written by one of the Hell's Angels.


I'd read the Piano Shop on the Left Bank when it first came out and I've always wondered about the person behind the book. I was certainly very glad to finally meet him. I'm sure members of our audience (including David Burke) would agree with me!

For the final event of our Sunday extravanganza, we had three excellent poets reading from a selection of their works published in Norton's newest poetry anthology American Hybrid.

Stacy Dorris



Jorie Graham


Alice Notley


Our rapt audience included poets Jennifer Dick and Marilyn Hacker (who herself was doing a reading with Marie Etienne the following day)





With so many events taking place all in one day, it was not surprising that many of the authors who came around, either to attend or read had a great time mingling with each other and with RWB's great audience. It was certainly a fun and momentous day for all of us at RWB!

CHANGE IN EVENT SCHEDULE

As you may have noticed, we have been excitedly telling everyone about the upcoming reading with Sally Gardner tomorrow, the 4th of June. Unfortunately due to some sad unforseen events, Sally won't be able to make it to the event. But this doesn't mean that she won't be back some other time at the RWB for a reading. She has definitely promised to come another day and we will keep you all posted with details.

All our other events are pushing through as planned so we hope to see you at one of them! Starting tomorrow until the 8th of June 2009, Paris is celebrating its first city wide literary festival called Paris en Toutes Lettres and we have a number of great authors coming for this festival. The full programe for the festival is available at RWB.

Don't forget to come to these great events:

7th of June (Sunday)
3PM --Anne Marsella reading from her just published french novel Patsy Boone. This is your chance to ask Anne all about contemporary writing in this fair city of ours.

5PM--T.E. Carhart reading from his beloved and best selling book Piano Shop on the Left Bank.

630 PM--a reading from some of today's most exciting poets from their new anthology The American Hybrid. We will have Cole Swensen, Stacy Dorris, Alice Nottley and Jorie Graham

8th of June (Monday)
7PM--Marilyn Hacker and Marie Etienne will do a bilingual reading of their award winning book King of a Hundred Horsemen


See you all soon!

One of my favorite things to do is to visit local flea markets. It doesn't matter where I go, I always try to visit them. I think its the prospect of finding that special something that I wouldn't be able to find anywhere else that makes me go. Soemtimes I'll come away empty handed after rummaging through piles of junk, but when I do strike gold, it makes my day! I've often wondered if there was a book specifically on markets in France, and it occured to me that I could check quite easily here at RWB. A bit of searching and I found Sandy Price's book The Flea Markets of France. A few clicks and the books were ordered. When I did get them, I took my copy home and literally read it that night. It is a beautiful little book packed with detailed information on markets all over France and gorgeous pictures. It made me want to visit some places that I would never have thought of. Needless to say I earmarked lots of pages.
Imagine my surprise when I got a call last week from the author herself! She was in town visiting her son and she wondered if we had copies of her book. Of course we had them! She came in yesterday, after some visiting some markets over the weekend and she very graciously agreed to answer some of my questions and to make recommendations. So there you have it, Sandy Price with her lovely book....