Paris Literary Icon Launches Prize and Magazine
by Claire Kirch
Jun 02, 2010
Shakespeare & Company Bookshop, the Paris literary icon originally founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919, and opened by George Whitman in 1951, is launching a literary magazine and literary prize. Both ventures will be officially announced at the famed Left Bank bookstore’s fourth biannual literary festival held the weekend of June 18-20.
The magazine, Paris Magazine, is what store owner Sylvia Whitman calls a “reincarnation” of a literary magazine with the same name that her father founded in 1967. The elder Whitman published three issues at sporadic intervals before discontinuing it in the ‘80s. “This will be the fourth one, but many, many years later,” the younger Whitman explained. It has not yet been determined how often this incarnation of Paris Magazine will be published.
Paris Magazine, edited by former Granta managing editor Fatema Ahmed, will include fiction, nonfiction, and illustrations. The current issue, with a 5,000-copy print run, contains a new translation of a poem by Apollinaire by Beat Generation writer Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a short story by N’Diaye, and another short story by Jesse Ball.
The bookstore will also award a 10,000 euro ($12, 292) prize every two years to the author of the best novella containing 20,000-30,000 words. Initial submissions are to be received by Dec. 1, 2010, and shortlisted entrants must submit their complete novella by March 1, 2011. The contest is open to unpublished writers only and there is an entry fee. Full details and entry forms will be made available on the bookstore’s website, www.shakespeareandcompany.com on June 20, the last day of this year’s literary festival. The prize is sponsored by the De Groot Foundation.
