Here is a list of the contacts that have been made so far in Paris with people and organisations who are ready to interact with residents, be it for a coffee, a reading or practical issues - or just by adding you to their mailing lists for events in Paris ahead of your arrival. Their contact details will be communicated to you ahead of your residency. You will also be given the email of a former resident of the garret who will act as your buddy before and during your stay.
Cole Swensen is a poet who lives in Paris from December through January and May to early September each year. Her writing is research-based and often involves the visual arts, landscape, and parks and gardens. She’s also a translator of contemporary French poetry and art criticism, and she’d be delighted to get together for coffee.Anne Marsella is a novelist and author of an award-winning collection of short stories and three novels. She writes both in English and in French and animates a salon on the female body and the arts inspired by Emilie du Châtelet, 18th century mathematician, coquette and free thinker extraordinaire. She will endeavour to meet you for a coffee or put you in touch with other like-minded people if she can't.
Painter Sarah Knill-Jones has close ties to the original Trelex Residency in Switzerland and now lives in Paris again after spells in Azerbaijan and London amongst other places. Though she has no particular knowledge of poetry, she has offered to be on hand to help fellow artists navigate the practicalities of living in Paris. You can see her website here. Specifically, she looks forward to welcoming you for coffee in her studio anytime you feel the need for it.
Christine Bonduelle runs the Editions Tituli, which are located right around the corner from the residency. If you contact her before you arrival, she will put you on the mailing list for the regular readings and events that she runs at the publishing company and elsewhere in Paris. She is also a wonderful poet in her own right. She will only engage with residents personally depending on shared interests etc… as she is very busy but make contact, go to the readings and introduce yourself.
Another place of interest is Shakespeare & Company, run by Sylvia Whitman and David Delannet. Both know about the Trelex Residency and hope you will join their mailing list and come to the weekly readings and events at their incredible bookshop (a true writer's mecca in Paris that also offers residencies, btw). They are both incredibly busy people, but do introduce yourself when you go, and tell them you are on the Trelex residency. Shakespeare & Co. has also become a bit of a tourist attraction so it might be worth picking a quieter moment to go and make contact. Talk to the sales staff: they are all wonderful people very engaged with the Paris literary scene in a multitude of ways.
Olivier Brossard is Associate Professor at Université Paris Est Marne-La-Vallée and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He is the editor of Joca Seria American Poetry Collection and a translator. With Abigail Lang and Vincent Broqua, he's working on a Collective History of American Poetry and Poetics and runs the Poets & Critics symposia series. These consist of three 2-day symposia a year (program here; register/subscribe here). The Collective history project also includes talks and events (program on the Poets and Critics website as well).
Vincent Broqua, Abigail Lang, and Olivier Brossard, will be also be happy to welcome visiting poets at the Double Change reading series. Organised since 2000 by the Double Change Collective of which they are all members, the reading series has tried to maintain and nurture a sense of community among poets, artists, critics, translators, poet enthusiasts. Poetry readings are also the occasion to exchange and talk after the readings which are always followed by an apéritif. Visiting poets are welcome to attend the readings (which are all free) and to mingle with the audience. Please feel free to join the Double Change mailing list here and get in contact with the curators through their websites www.doublechange.org or www.poetscritics.org.
Clydette de Groot is active in The American Library in Paris as well as in the Paris Literary community. She and her husband sponsored the Paris Literary Prize with Shakespeare &Co and are the sponsors of the soon to be launched Miami Book Fair/De Groot Prize for a novella. When in Paris, Clydette would be happy to invite you for a drink, coffee, or dinner to meet other writers.
Jennifer K. Dick is a poet, translator and critic as well as literature Professor in France. She is highly interested in multilingual nd text-image works, both from the literary and the visual arts side. She curates monthly bilingual reading series in Paris (Ivy Writers in Paris) and co-organizes the Ecrire l'Art mini residencies at la Kunsthalle-Mulhouse Centre of Contemporary Art. Increasingly interested in collaborative projects, Jennifer looks forward to hearing about your work, meeting you for coffee or a stroll, and helping you settle in or perhaps even arrange a reading event during your stay.
Heather Hartley is the author of two collections of poetry and is Paris Editor for Tin House magazine. she has presented writers at Shakespeare and Company Bookshop and her column about literary Paris 'Apéritif' appears on the Tin House website. She'd be happy to meet up for coffee to talk and share ideas on all things about Paris.
Jennifer K. Dick.
