Vignettes & Postcards, edited by Erin Byrne and Anna Pook
This collection of short stories comes from “The Evening Writing Workshop at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore” in Paris – held in the Fall of 2011. These stories are masterfully told – each an intriguing “painting” if you will.
Paris is certainly an ideal location for a writing workshop – scores of accomplished writers have called the city home at some point in their careers, authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Henry Miller, among others.
Travel writer and instructor Erin Byrne curated the 2011 Evening workshop while her co-editor Anna Pook is a regular instructor at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. They both compiled 26 short stories into this unique literary collection. The stories span a variety of genres – from short fiction, personal essay, interview, travel to poetry.
One never gets too far into the stories, they are too short for that. But they are each engaging in their own way. And not surprisingly, Paris is the setting in a number of these, serving as the backdrop for fleeting snapshots that leave you wanting to read more.
There are tourists observations, take for example the fun “Looking at People Looking at the Mona Lisa”. But mostly the stories are about everyday life – buying a street painting in “Sunday Talks” or something as mundane as a chair perched in front of a bookstore in the appropriately titled, “The Chair”.
Similar to how the movie “Midnight in Paris” left the viewer wanting to be a part of Paris’s arts scene, so does this book. Except in this case it is the present day thriving literary scene. Click here for more information about Erin’s upcoming writing workshops.
To purchase Vignettes & Postcards
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