Annie Heminway, CALA’s Advanced Creative Writing: French instructor, has been an international literary advisor for the Montreal Literary Festival Blue Metropolis for over 15 years. At this year’s festival, she will be hosting creative writing workshops with her NYUSPS students and other American and Quebecois participants at the Montreal Hotel 10, in presence of three renowned French writers. More information on each workshop can be found below.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN?
Thursday, April 27, from 3: 30 to 4:30 PM
The protagonist of Marcus Malte’s novel is a nameless mute boy, constantly on the run. The boy’s odyssey, a quest for human benevolence lasting three decades, from 1908 to 1938, takes the reader on a journey throughout France. In Le garçon, a story of initiation which also a highly critical chronicle of a specific period in French history, Malte uses a novel type of language to create a philosophical and political vision of life, adding a musical dimension to his style: “Liszt saved him, but Mendelsohn brought him happiness.”
Writing workshop, led by Annie Heminway, in the presence of Marcus Malte, recipient of the prix Femina for 2016
OF EXILE AND COURAGE
Friday, April 28, from 9:30 AM to 12:30 
In Romain Gary s’en va-t-en-guerre, as in L’exercice de la médecine, Laurent Seksik blends individual destinies and History, also shedding light on his protagonist’s inner life. l’Histoire. Walking in Romain Gary’s shoes, Seksik illuminates the eminent writer’s struggle to imaginatively transform his father’s painful absence into a spectral presence. Furthermore, Seksik suggests that the key to Gary’s genius, his exaltations, and despair may be found in the figurative presence of his absent father.
Writing workshop, led by Annie Heminway, in the presence of Laurent Seksik, recipient of the Parisien’s best French novel 2013 award and the prix littéraire de Psychanalyse, 2014.
REMEMBERING THE COLORS OF OUR CHILDHOOD
Saturday, April 29, from 9: 30 AM to 12: 30 PM
How do we remember colors, in all their sociopolitical, physical, symbolic, literary, and artistic manifestations? Writing with charming spontaneity, Michel Pastoureau nostalgically traces the history of color in France, from the 1950s to the present. How do we, accustomed to a seemingly infinite variety of colors, remember the colors of our past. This book is a dream in which we will see the colors of our memories.
Writing workshop, led by Annie Heminway, in the presence de Michel Pastoureau, recipient of the prix Médicis for essays in 2010
BEING A FIREFIGHTER: AN ARDENT LIFE
Sunday 30 April 30, from 9 :30 AM to 12 :30 PM
Try to imagine—if this is not your profession professional firefighter—a firefighter’s heroic life. You are a fifteen-year veteran in Montreal’s Firehouse 15. You have witnessed many tragedies. You have extinguished a fire at Avenue du Parc, you have fiercely struggled to contain a forest fire in the Laurentians, you have helped many people—and cats—whose names you have forgotten. Looking back your career, you recall many powerful moments, painful and joyful. Relying on a few excerpts which will be provided, you will—unconstrained by the traditional regularities of time and place– recount a memorable experience, writing in the first person, or retelling an imaginary colleague’s story.
Workshop led by Annie Heminway in the presence of firefighters/aspiring writers celebrating Montreal’s 375th Anniversary.
View the full festival program here: http://bluemetropolis.org/2014festival/
Want to learn French or sharpen your creative writing skills in English? Take a course at CALA this summer!
Culture and Language Bootcamp for Work and Study Abroad: French
French: Accelerated I and II
French II
French: Spoken Contemporary
****
Advanced Writing Workshop
Character Development in Fiction
Five Weeks, One Great Short Story
New York Stories: A Writing Workshop
The Fundamentals of Fiction Writing
Annie will also be offering a new French course this Fall–stay tuned for details!
Annie…
Comment vas-tu et quoi de neuf? C’est Paula, de Wyoming. Tu te rappelles— tu es rstee chez moi et on a dessine a Vedauwoo! On s’est rencontree dans le Montana et j’ai fait aussi le stage a la Nouvelle Orleans! Mais maintenant, j’habite a Ankara, en Turquie.. J’enseigne au lycee de l’ambassade de France. J’ai des eleves qui s’interessent a ecrire en francais et en anglais cet ete. Pourrais- tu me dire s’il y aura des ateliers pour ecrire cet ete et ou?