Left Bank Writers Retreat

Walk in Hemingway’s Footsteps! PARIS is calling! The 2016 Left Bank Writers Retreat – Holiday Discount for the Writer in Your Life!

In June of 2014 I treated myself to one of the most remarkable journeys I have ever been on. Yes, it was Paris…and that’s always an amazing journey. But what made it special were the people that accompanied me on the journey. When you participate in the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris, you instantly become family with a handful of writers as you traipse together through the same Paris that Ernest Hemingway knew and loved. It is the opportunity of a lifetime to see Paris through the eyes of the LBWR facilitators.

And they are currently having a holiday discount!

Now accepting registration for summer session of the LBWR, June 19-25, 2016

Holiday Discount, register before December 31, 2015 and save $200

As a past participant in the LBWR (June, 2014), I can tell you it was one of the highlights of my traveling/writing life. We lunched at amazing sidewalk cafes frequented by Hemingway, we wrote in the Luxembourg Gardens and in the Tuileries, we visited many museums, we took the Metro to Montmartre. We did it all. And the organizers–Darla Worden, Sarah Suzor, and, Travis Cebula–were absolutely incredible. There is not a thing about Paris that Travis Cebula does not know. He is just a non-stop wealth of knowledge. This is important when you have your evenings to yourself and you’re new to the city of lights. Travis was there with an answer to all inquiries when it came to mapping out our evenings in Paris. The three of them went well beyond all expectations, making my first experience in Paris a truly memorable one I will carry with me forever.

Honestly, beyond the tours of Hemingway’s haunts and the writing exercises in the most beautiful parks of the city, we all just connected. And it was certainly implied that every year makes up another special familial group of Left Bank Writers. With Darla, Sarah and Travis serving as the glue that holds each year’s group together…you really can’t go wrong.

If you’re a writer, allow the LBWR to show you a Paris you have never seen before while simultaneously kick-starting your writing to the next level. You won’t regret the experience. If there is a writer in your life and you’re looking for the perfect writing gift to help encourage their path…THIS IS IT. Give them Paris and Hemingway and Darla and Sarah and Travis! It’s a combination like no other. Beautiful City + Beautiful People = Unforgettable Awesome

Here’s the latest missive from the LBWR…you can read more about the program in their words:

Holiday Gifts for Writers: Paris Tops the List

Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris announces holiday sale plus top-5 book suggestions

Denver, Colo. – Nov. 10, 2015 – The Left Bank Writers Retreat, a small-group six-day writing workshop and literary tourism experience held in Paris each June, has some great gift ideas for that writer on your holiday shopping list. “Of course you can’t beat a chance to find writing inspiration in Paris firsthand,” says Left Bank Writers Retreat founder and director Darla Worden, “so we have to suggest that as a starting point.”

As a holiday gift-giving incentive, anyone signing up for this summer’s retreat before Dec. 31 will receive a $200 discount off the $1,999 tuition for a reduced price of $1,799. The Left Bank Writers Retreat will take place June 19-25, 2016, and tuition covers all daily expenses during the retreat from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (breakfast, lunch, admissions fees and transportation around the city, as well as writing instruction). Writers are responsible for their own airfare and lodging.

Open to all levels of writers, the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris includes morning writing sessions, coaching and one-on-one time with the instructor for a maximum of eight writers, as well as lunch each day, admission to museums and area sights and a picnic on the banks of the Seine. Recommended by the Los Angeles Times as a chance to follow in Hemingway’s footsteps and cure writer’s block, the workshop includes a literary tourism experience that treats attending writers to many of the sights featured in the Woody Allen movie “Midnight in Paris” as well as some newly opened and off-the-beaten-track literary landmarks.

“If a trip to Paris is larger than a shopper’s budget allows,” says Worden, “books about Ernest Hemingway and Paris also make excellent gifts.” She recommends the following list of titles, old and new, to add to shopping lists:

1.    Hemingway in Love: His Own Story by A.E. Hotchner

2.    Hemingway’s Paris: A Writer’s City in Words and Images by Robert Wheeler

3.    Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties by Noel Riley Fitch

4.    Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

5.    The Nick Adams Stories (Audible Audio Edition) by Ernest Hemingway, read by Stacy Keach

The Left Bank Writers Retreat is named for the now-famous writers who lived on Paris’s Left Bank during the 1920s. Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and F. Scott Fitzgerald are some of the expats who wrote in Paris, congregating in the city’s cafes and bars to share ideas. During the June retreat, participants experiment with many of the Left Bank writers’ techniques.

Applications for the June 2016 retreat and registration information are online at www.leftbankwritersworkshop.com/register

Darla Worden is a writer who lives in Jackson, Wyo., Denver, Colo., and Paris. Worden has written widely for magazines and authored several books. She writes the popular blog Frenchophile and is currently working on a book about Hemingway’s Paris.

Now in its seventh year, the Left Bank Writers Retreat takes place on the historic Île Saint-Louis in the heart of Paris. Writers arrange their own lodging and transportation to Paris. For additional information, visit www.leftbankwriters.com.

Media Contact: Darla Worden, WordenGroup Public Relations, darla@wordenpr.com, 303.777.7667

Make a decision that will change you or the writing loved one in your life. I promise…it will be incredible!

Some pics of my Left Bank Writers Retreat adventure!

20140620_225917-MOTION — In the evenings, participants are free to visit the sights of the city either on their own or with fellow participants. I discovered this beauty with fellow participant, Nina.

paris2 — Left Bank Writers Retreat creator Darla Worden, with fellow facilitator Travis Cebula and participant Nina Welch. We wrote in the Luxembourg Gardens most mornings!

The Left Bank Writers Retreat faculty take writers to these magical steps, where Gil was whisked off into the 1920s in the movie Midnight In Paris!

Leftbank Writers Retreat – THE Perfect Christmas Gift for the Writer on Your List! Or Treat YOURSELF!

It’s DECEMBER. Some of us are finished our Christmas shopping. Others will start it on the 24th. I’m somewhere in the middle of the spectrum when it comes to Christmas gift shopping. I have begun.

Have I got a gift idea for the writer on your list! 🙂

As some of you may know, I went to Paris in June of this year. It wasn’t an ordinary Paris trip, though. I went for a writing workshop. As a HUGE fan of Ernest Hemingway’s A MOVEABLE FEAST, I always had the desire not only to see Paris…but to see it in the footsteps of Hemingway. I Googled Hemingway’s Paris writing retreat about a year ago. As is often the case, Google struck gold. On the first page of my search, LEFT BANK WRITERS RETREAT IN PARIS came up. I knew within a minute of clicking on the website that I had found what I was looking for.

The Beautiful Luxembourg Gardens, where writers on the retreat spend their mornings writing and listening and breathing in the beauty that is Paris... — The Beautiful Luxembourg Gardens, where writers on the retreat spend their mornings writing and listening and breathing in the beauty that is Paris…

I saw Hemingway’s Paris, I wrote in the Tuileries and in the Luxembourg Gardens, I saw the city from atop the Eiffel Tower, I wandered museums, I strolled down the Champs-Élysées, and I climbed the great spiral staircase to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. I did it all.

In this unique writing retreat, writers have the opportunity to explore Paris on their own during the evening. There is nothing more beautiful than walking the streets of Paris while the sun is setting! Doing so after a full day of living the writing life is even more extraordinary!

The retreat is perfect for first time visitors to Paris, as well as those returning to the city of love and light. For first timers, not only will you be taken through Hemingway’s Paris in the embrace of tour organizer Darla Worden and her amazing faculty Sarah Sazur and Travis Cebula during the day, but you will also have the nights to explore Paris on your own. And all three faculty members are amazingly knowledgeable on all things Paris…and extremely helpful at making suggestions and offering directions, etc. I never once felt abandoned during my stay. It was wonderful to have the evenings to ourselves after our days of writing and museum hoping and neighbourhood visiting. And there was always someone from the group to share the evening experiences with.

If you are a writer, now is the time to spoil yourself for Christmas! The Left Bank Writers Retreat is currently offering a discount! So treat yourself while the deal is on. You will NOT regret it. I loved it so much, I plan to attend this retreat again in the future.

If you have a loved one who is a writer, this is the perfect Christmas gift for them. I promise you, they will love this enriching experience in the city of love and light. Paris changes you. Paris through the wonder of the Left Bank Writers Retreat, done in the shadow of Ernest Hemingway, changes you on an even deeper level. Give the gift that will give back to the writer in your life for years to come.

As writers on the loose in the evenings of Paris, you could visit the Louvre! If you walk straight from the pyramid, through the Tuileries beyond, you will find yourself strolling on the Champs-Elysees. This will eventually take you to the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, where you can walk to the top and view the city in all its splendour!

Here’s a media release from the retreat:

Forget the fancy pens and notebooks. This year’s best holiday gift for writers is six days at the Left Bank Writers Retreat, a small-group summer writing workshop held in Paris each summer. A $200 discount on registration for this year’s retreat, to be held June 14-19, 2015 – on any registration made by January 1, 2015 – makes the deal sweeter for gift givers.

The discounted price of the six-day Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris is $1,799 (regularly $1,999) and includes morning writing sessions, coaching and one-on-one time with the instructor for a maximum of eight writers, as well as lunch each day, admission to museums and area sights, an excursion to Montmartre, a picnic on the banks of the Seine and a literary tour visiting many of the sites featured in the Woody Allen movie “Midnight in Paris.”

“I’ve heard many stories at the retreat from women and men who received the retreat as a gift,” says retreat founder and CAL member Darla Worden. “It is definitely a gift that keeps on giving – writers leave the retreat with newfound inspiration found in Paris.”

The retreat welcomes fiction and memoir writers, poets and playwrights. A place in the 2015 retreat can be held with a $500 deposit.

What trip to Paris would be complete without a visit to the Eiffel Tower. The Left Bank Writers Retreat included a boat ride down the Seine where we viewed the Tower from the river. Later, on our own, a fellow alum and myself made our way to the tower for our own personal exploration up close and atop!

Put yourself, or your loved one, in the hands of the best Paris tour guides you will ever meet. Darla, Sarah and Travis are AMAZING! They gave me a gift I will never forget. Ernest Hemingway once said, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”

I have changed this slightly after being fortunate enough to have experienced the Left Bank Writers Retreat. “If you are lucky enough to have experienced the Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for the Left Bank Writers Retreat is a moveable feast.”

Give the writer on your list a gift that will last forever. Give them Darla. And Sarah. And Travis. Give them Hemingway’s Paris!

Darla Worden, Sarah Suzor, and Travis Cebula — collectively, the magic behind the Left Bank Writers Retreat!

Left Bank Writers Retreat in Paris – A Writer at Work – Please Excuse the Blog Silence…

I will be slipping into the blog cone of silence once again. (-: Today I head to Paris and the LEFT BANK WRITERS RETREAT. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to go to Paris. It’s at the very top of my bucket list. In fact, a visit to the Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris IS the #1 item on that list. And guess where I will be heading while I’m in Paris! (-:

I will be taking small workshops every day while I’m there…little exercises in the exploration of all things writing. On the menu is; poetry, finding your voice, place as character and more. PLUS—we will be exploring Hemingway’s Paris AND F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Paris.

You can find out about the retreat by clicking RIGHT HERE. You know, in case you’re thinking you may want to go to the retreat NEXT year. I hear it’s an annual thing. (-:

Do I wish to retrace the footsteps of Hemingway? Absolutely. His A MOVEABLE FEAST is one of my all-time favourite books. I’m going to attempt to re-read it on my flight over tonight. Although I tend to do nothing but sleep while on airplanes. I can’t seem to keep my eyes open. I’m not too worried about it, though. I have practically memorized the book. (-;

Some of my favourite Moveable Feast quotes:

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”~ ERNEST HEMINGWAY, A Moveable Feast

“By then I knew that everything good and bad left an emptiness when it stopped. But if it was bad, the emptiness filled up by itself. If it was good you could only fill it by finding something better.”~ ERNEST HEMINGWAY, A Moveable Feast

“For a poet he threw a very accurate milk bottle.”~ ERNEST HEMINGWAY, A Moveable Feast

I’m going to Paris for Hemingway. And for Paris itself. I believe it to be a beautiful city. I’m about to find out if reality matches my belief…

See you on the flipside. (-:

Please don’t forget to check out my previous post! I’m having a fundraiser for MALESURVIVOR. For a limited time, 100% of the royalties of my book sales will be going towards their Weekend of Recovery Scholarship program.