The Paris Short Prose Workshop

Announcing a new format for the Paris Lit Up Sunday workshops at Shakespeare and Company.

Our new focus will be on sharing and critiquing short pieces of prose. Participants will submit their work in advance via Google Drive; everyone will come to workshop having read and reflected on the work and ready for discussion. Drop-ins welcomed; it's not necessary to have read the work to sit in and listen.

The workshop will read short prose pieces (flash fiction, micro essays, short short stories, prose poems, whatever) fewer than 500 words in length.

See below for workshop guidelines.

Workshop is held on the first Sunday of every month at 12h30 - 14h30,

5€ donation to benefit Paris Lit Up

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Workshop facilitator Shannon Cain has taught fiction writing at the University of Leipzig, the University of Arizona, Gotham Writers’ Workshop, Arizona State University, and most recently as a core faculty member in the MFA program at Bennington College.

Her first book, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors (http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780822944102-0), won the 2011 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the largest cash award in the U.S. for an unpublished collection of stories. Her work also has been awarded the O. Henry Prize, two Pushcarts, and a fellowship from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts. In 2014, the French government awarded her a 3-year Skills and Talents visa in the arts. This workshop is an expression of gratitude for that honor.

In 2013 and 2014, Shannon’s current and former clients (http://www.shannoncain.com/Shannon_Cain/Client_Accomplishments.html) published six books; placed twenty-three stories or poems in literary journals; won four national writing contests, were accepted into two MFA programs, and completed one postgraduate fellowship.

WORKSHOP GUIDELINES:

The Paris Short Prose Workshop at Shakespeare and Company

Validation is important, go and get some. But once you’ve gotten it, it’s time for criticism. Real criticism is much harder to find, and it’s much more important when it comes to improving your book.

A good outside reader is someone who holds you to a higher standard, someone who wants more from you than you might really be capable of, who sees the book on your terms, but raises the bar for you by showing you what might be possible in your revisions.

--Ben Marcus

Workshop Code of Ethics

The secret to a productive workshop experience is the knowledge that we gain the most benefit not from the critiques we receive on our own writing but from the concentrated energy we spend on the pages of others. This work makes us better writers. The more love and attention we put into the workshop, the more we get back.

We read each work of writing on its own terms. We read carefully; we appreciate subtlety and originality. We do not judge: judgment is not the group’s function. We don’t dismiss a story because of its subject matter or voice or style; we attempt instead to understand it. We consider a story’s intentions then analyze it to suggest how and where and why its author’s choices have helped it accomplish its intentions. We honor individuality and experimentation, because voice and other wonderfully strange approaches are all at the heart of fresh, lively writing.

Expectations of Participants

This workshop is open to the public. Anyone is welcome to come in and sit down and listen, and even pull up the stories we’re discussing on their mobile devices in order to participate spontaneously.

Writers whose work is being workshopped, as well as those who intend to have theirs workshopped in the future, are considered “regular participants,” and are expected to come prepared, having carefully read all the pieces and prepared written comments for the author. Many of us choose to print the stories, but you’re welcome to offer your notes via email if the author is willing. A sentence or two of feedback is generally sufficient, but everyone will appreciate as much as you’re willing to give. Margin notes are also welcome.

Each month, we read and discuss up to ten pieces of short prose. Participants submit their work in advance, via Google Docs. Submissions are taken on a first come, first served basis.

Getting Workshopped

Submissions are limited to 500 words. Please doublespace, and please make sure your submission fits on two pages.

We read fiction, nonfiction, memoir, essay, prose poetry…the genre hardly matters as long as its author considers it prose. Explain as little about the piece as you can: the work should stand on its own. If you’re submitting an excerpt from a longer work, do subtitle it appropriately (“novel excerpt,” for example.)

To submit your story, upload it to this Google Docs folder: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Byd4N_ochhUKfmtQNkdEdUZEVU5KTUxhcWtxSE9PajcxbW83UnNqTTRmT1VtSzJoaVhKNVk&usp=sharing

To participate, you must have access to Google Docs account and have the capacity to use it without any technical assistance from this group. Emails with tech questions will go unanswered. We’re here to talk about making prose, not about how to use a typewriter.

Our Workshop Style

In our workshop conversations, we strive for a tone that is generous and helpful and kind. We are engaging in a dialogue with inquisitive and curious peers. Our feedback is both gentle and rigorous. We avoid making statements like “you must” and “you should.” Such judgments lack humility, narrow literary possibility, hamper experimentation, and tend to shut down, rather than open up, the conversation. We express ourselves in terms more like this: “for me, the effect of X in your story is Y.” This approach reminds us we not the authority on the work in question and compels us to articulate our points more precisely. Articulating what works is often more difficult than articulating what doesn’t; in our experience, hypercritical workshop types not only lack generosity of spirit but are secretly just bullies too lazy to do the hard work of appreciation. Our style is to offer concise, thoughtful and smart ideas to help one another produce literature that transcends.