Event: Palo Alto Oshman Family JCC

Special thanks to our host, Meredith Miller Vostrejs, who led a lively discussion of travel, and to the audience, whose enthusiasm for the world made the evening one we won’t soon forget. 

Palo Alto Reading 1

Palo Alto Reading 2

An Evening with Travel Writer Lavinia Spalding

True Stories from Around the World

Event date: 10/6/2015 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Export event

Location: Freidenrich Conference Center, Room F-401

Enjoy an intimate conversation with Lavinia Spalding, editor of The Best Women’s Travel Writing series. She will be joined by other contributors to the anthology and discuss travel planning and writing. Come prepared to laugh, listen, share and be entertained while enjoying wine and cheese!

More About Lavinia Spalding
Lavinia Spalding is a writer, editor, teacher, public speaker, and lapsed Luddite. She’s the series editor of The Best Women’s Travel Writing and the author of two books: Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler, and With a Measure of Grace, the Story and Recipes of a Small Town Restaurant. Lavinia’s work has appeared in many print and online publications and discussed in a TEDx talk. She also teaches writing and journaling workshops.

Lavinia lives in San Francisco, where she’s a resident of the Writers’ Grotto, faculty of the annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference and co-founder of the award-winning monthly travel reading series Weekday Wanderlust.
For more information, visit her website.

Faith Adiele is the author of The Nigerian-Nordic Girl’s Guide To Lady Problems (Shebooks) and Meeting Faith (W.W. Norton), a travel memoir that won the PEN Open Book Award for Best Memoir; writer/narrator/subject of My Journey Home, a PBS documentary about traveling to find family; and co-editor of Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology (The New Press). A graduate of Harvard University, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program, she teaches nonfiction around the world, as well as at California College of the Arts, The San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, and Voices/VONA, where she’s established the nation’s first workshop for travel writers of color. For more information, visit her website.

Erin Byrne writes travel essays, poetry, fiction and screenplays. Her work has won numerous awards including three Grand Prize Solas Awards for Travel Story of the Year, the Reader’s Favorite Award, Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Finalist, and an Accolade Award for film. Erin is author of Wings From Victory (Travelers’ Tales, 2016), editor of Vignettes & Postcards From Paris and Vignettes & Postcards From Morocco (Reputation Books, 2016), and writer of The Storykeeper film.  Her screenplay, Siesta, is in pre-production in Spain. She is working on the novel, The Red Notebook.   For more information, visit  her website.

Candace Rose Rardon is a writer, sketch artist, and illustrator whose stories and watercolors have appeared in places such as BBC Travel, World Hum, and National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel site, as well as inLonely Planet’s literary anthology An Innocent Abroad and Travelers’ Tales Best Women’s Travel Writing. She also runs her travel blog, “The Great Affair”, which has been featured in the New York Times, and earned an MA in Travel Writing from London’s Kingston University.

Tuesday, October 6
7:30 PM
Freidenrich Conference Center
$12 General Public | $10 Members and J-Pass holders (What is J-Pass?)

Book Passage Event – Stories with a French Twist

Sunday, October 4th at 4 P.M at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA
Savor a moveable feast of travel stories with the accent on all things French. Mill Valley author Lisa Alpine hosts this effervescent literary afternoon featuring a cadre of très magnifique authors including:
• Erin Byrne is author of Wings: Gifts of Art, Life, and Travel in France(Travelers’ Tales, 2016), editor of Vignettes & Postcards From Paris and Vignettes & Postcards From Morocco (Reputation Books, 2016), and writer of The Storykeeper film. Her screenplay, Siesta, is in pre-production in Spain. She is working on the novel, The Red Notebook.
• Kimberley Lovato is a freelance writer and Francophile. Her book, Walnut Wine & Truffle Groves, about the food and people of the Dordogne region of France, received the Gold Lowell Thomas Award in 2012 from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation and her essays have appeared in many anthologies including The Best Women’s Travel Writing.
• Camille Cusumano, a former editor a VIA magazine, is the author Tango, DSCF5194an Argentine Love Story. She has written for numerous publications, and is the editor of four Seal Press anthologies on France, Italy, Mexico, and Greece and author of the novel, The Last Cannoli.
• Maxine Rose Schur’s travel essays appear in numerous publications including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, National Geographic Explorer, Insight Guides and Salon.com as well as travel literature anthologies. She has twice won the Lowell Thomas Award given by the Society of American Travel Writers for excellence in travel journalism.
• Lisa Alpine is the author of Wild Life: Travel Adventures of a Worldly Woman — Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Travel Book of the Year Award and Exotic Life: Travel Tales of an Adventurous Woman— Best Memoir at the 2014 North American Book Awards. Lisa also won Solas Award’s silver “Best Travel Story of the Year” for Fish Trader Ray in Travelers’ Tales Best Travel Writing.

Lisa Alpine, hostess extraordinaire, once again orchestrated an event both interesting and full of joie de vivre!!

French Twist reading 1

The Storykeeper Screening, Seattle

You are invited to a screening of The Storykeeper

Saturday, May 9 at 4 pm
Grand Illusion Cinema
1403 NE 50th
Seattle, WA 98105

Seattle Transmedia and Independent Film Festival
for tickets go to http://trueindependent.org/schedule/

storykeeperIn June of 1944 during the last days of the German Occupation of Paris, 7-year-old René Psarolis is playing on his street, rue de la Chapelle, when A B-17G soars overhead and crashes nearby. The explosion reverberates inside René. Through the years, he is haunted by questions, and ultimately seeks answers. He finally pieces the story together in a way that changes the lives of two survivors and the families of the fallen airmen.

This short documentary, made by filmmaker Rogeir Van Beeck Calkoen and writer Erin Byrne, has been shown at festivals worldwide, and is the winner of an Accolade Award, Best Documentary Short at Geneva Film Festival and Universe Multicultural Festival.

To see the film trailer and learn more about the story, go to www.thestorykeeperthefilm.com

 

 

Adventure Travel Series

Adventure Travel Stories

WITH AN ALL-STAR LINEUP

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22ND | CREEKSIDE ROOM – 7PM

Screen Shot 2016-01-27 at 10.41.46 AMMill Valley author Lisa Alpine hosts an ensemble of travel writers for this three-part series of literary travel tales from around the globe. Each program highlights renowned authors including Pam Houston (Cowboys Are My Weakness), Richard Bangs (founder Sobek Expeditions), Larry Habegger (publisher Travelers’ Tales), Jeff Greenwald (Shopping For Buddhas), and many more. Come and enjoy this series of travel yarns that run the gamut from sexy to humorous, poignant to outrageous, insightful to daring. Book signings at each event. Registration is recommended. To register, call (415) 389-4292 x3, or visit millvalleylibrary.org. Photo by Rajarshi Mitra

FEATURING:

  • Pam Houston: Author of five books of adventure-laden fiction and nonfiction including Cowboys Are My Weakness and Contents May Have Shifted.
  • Erin Byrne: Winner of the Grand Prize Solas for Travel Story of the Year, and appears in Best Travel Writing.
  • Larry Habegger: Cofounder and executive editor of Travelers’ Tales.
  • James Michael Dorsey: Author of Vanishing Tales from Ancient Trails, and writer for LA Times, BBC Wildlife, and more.
  • Lisa Alpine: Author of Wild Life: Travel Adventures of a Worldly Woman and Exotic Life: Travel Tales of an Adventurous Woman.

MILL VALLEY PUBLIC LIBRARY | 375 THROCKMORTON AVE, MILL VALLEY, CA 94941 | (415) 389-4292 X3 | MILLVALLEYLIBRARY.ORG

Paris Premiere

Erin Byrne, Gonzague Pichelin, and Benjamin Sutherland will discuss and present two films. Thursday, March 26 at 20:00, La Caféothèque, 52 rue de l’Hôtel de Ville, Paris 75004. This is a free event – please purchase a drink.

The Storykeeper

storykeeperIn June of 1944 during the last days of the German Occupation of Paris, 7-year-old René Psarolis is playing on his street, rue de la Chapelle, when A B-17G soars overhead and crashes nearby. The explosion reverberates inside René. Through the years, he is haunted by questions: What happened? Who was in that plane? Did they all die or did some survive? He seeks answers, and finally pieces the story together in a way that changes the lives of two survivors and the families of the fallen airmen. Filmmaker Rogeir Van Beeck Calkoen, writer Erin Byrne. Winner of an Accolade Award, Best Documentary Short at Geneva Film Festival and Universe Multicultural Festival. Erin will also read from “Storykeepers”, winner of a bronze Solas Award for Travel Story of the Year, from The Best Travel Writing, Volume 10.

Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man

portrait dvdIn 1951, George Whitman opened a bookshop-commune in Paris. George, 92 at the time of filming, runs his “den of anarchists disguised as a bookstore,” offering free, dirty beds to poor literati, cutting his hair with a candle flame and gluing the carpet with pancake batter. More than 40,000 poets, travelers and political activists have stayed at Shakespeare and Company, writing or stealing books, throwing parties and making soup or love while living with George’s generosity and fits of anger. Illustrious guests include Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Jacques Prévert, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Welcome to the makeshift utopia of the last member of the Beat Generation. Filmmakers Benjamin Sutherland and Gonzague Pichelin.

 

Spoken Word Paris

Monday, March 9 at 20:00

Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes

The Spoken Word is an open mic event featuring poetry, monologue, stories and music. This week, among other fascinating readers and musicians, travel and screen writer Erin Byrne will read an excerpt from a story about The Storykeeper, a film about occupied Paris made with filmmaker Rogier Van Beeck Calkoen, from the ELJ collection, Wild Horses, and travel writer and sketch artist Candace Rose Rardon will read her story from the Lonely Planet anthology, An Innocent Abroad.

erin

wildhorses

 

 

 

 

 

A stunning collection by ELJ Publications authored by 16 women sharing their words and journeys as women through poetry, fiction and non-fiction. To order go to eljpublications.com.

candace

innocent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life-changing stories from 35 great writers, edited by Don George. www.lonelyplanet.com.

au chat noir

Best Women’s Travel Writing in Paris

AN EVENING OF TRAVEL

Readings and discussion from the celebrated anthology,resized bwtw

The Best Women’s Travel Writing

Friday, March 6, 19:00 – 21:00

Salle de Conference

Columbia Global Centers Europe

Reid Hall

4 rue de Chevreuse 75006

Seating is limited

 

 

“Tell me,” poet Mary Oliver once wrote, “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Oliver’s quote opensThe Best Women’s Travel Writing, Volume 10: True Stories from Around the World. Thirty celebrated writers invite you to ride shotgun as they travel the globe to discover new places, people, and facets of themselves. The essays are as diverse as the destinations, the common thread being fresh, compelling storytelling that will make you laugh, weep, wish you were there, or thank your lucky stars you weren’t. The Best Women’s Travel Writing speaks to the reasons why we travel – and how travel changes our lives.

Erin Byrne‘s widely published writing has won numerous awards, including Travelers’ Tales Solas Awards for Travel Story of the Year. Erin is writer of The Storykeeper, an award-winning film about occupied Paris, occasional guest instructor at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore, and co-editor of Vignettes & Postcards From Paris, the first in a series of anthologies based on her workshops in different parts of the world.

Anne Korkeakivi is the author of the novel, An Unexpected Guest (Little, Brown & Co.; 2012), set within the expatriate community in Paris. Her short fiction and nonfiction have been published by The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (UK), The Yale Review, Ms., Travel & Leisure, Islands, The Millions, and many others. Anne has worked for the French publisher Flammarion. She currently lives in Switzerland and is working on a new novel.

Award-winning journalist Jayme Moye has written hundreds of narratives for more than 50 publishers including National Geographic and Fodor’s Travel Intelligence. Her travels have taken her from Afghanistan to Iceland in pursuit of the greatest stories ever told. In 2014, the North American Travel Journalists Association named her Travel Journalist of the Year.

Candace Rose Rardon is a writer and artist whose stories and sketches have appeared on sites such as BBC Travel, AOL Travel, World Hum, Gadling, and National Geographic Traveler’s Intelligent Travel blog. Her travel blog, The Great Affair, has been featured in The New York Times.

Colombia Center Event us 4

 

candace, jayme, me at columbia BWTW Columbia Center