Emily in France 🇫🇷 I've Got News!

I've got an agent!

Long before I wanted to be a food journalist (a dream job if ever there was one), I wanted to be a novelist. I started writing short stories when I was in 4th grade and quickly moved past work unapologetically derivative of Louisa May Alcott and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor to telling my own stories. I wrote all through high school and college, but it wasn't until I moved to Paris for the second time that, on a whim, I joined a writing workshop. My life changed forever.

Not only did I meet several of my all-time favorite people and best friends, I discovered a community of women who were as obsessed with storytelling as I was. People who were always willing to read "something" – an essay, a chapter, a firmly-worded e-mail – and for whom I am overjoyed and honored to do the same. We have sat side by side in cafés together, been on writing retreats, and read each others' novels cover to cover. We have taken care of one another, whether it's a couch to crash on, a book sent through the post, or a socially distanced gab fest in lockdown Paris.

It is in large part thanks to these women that (I am ever so proud to announce), two weeks ago, just days before my 33rd birthday, I signed with the Heather Jackson Literary Agency.

The journey isn't over. I'm deep in the editing trenches, and only then will Heather begin to shop the book around to publishers. But I'm excited and oh-so grateful for the community of women who helped to make this possible.

And I'm celebrating with Sicilian rosé that tastes like strawberries.
 

What I'm Eating

1. Fish and chips from Clamato.

2. Strawberry-basil pastries from Utopie.

3. More bread and iced coffee than ever before from the incomparable Ten Belles.
 

What I'm Writing

1. French restaurants may well be more likely to survive the lockdown than their American counterparts. I delved deep into why for Paris by Mouth.

2. I spent almost ten summers running a language immersion camp in the Corbières mountains. We often visited Peyrepertuse, and if we were lucky, Patrice Potier would be there with his falconry show. I explored his unusual career for Atlas Obscura.

3. So much of the literary canon explores the sort of navel-gazing, misanthropic man that makes many modern novels seem derivative of Hemingway. The Friend turns this trope on its head in a way that is utterly fascinating – and not wholly unfeminist. More on the blog.

What I'm Reading

1. This list (with images!) of the workspaces of different creative people throughout history from Buzzfeed.

2. This story in the Atlantic about America's racial contrast becoming ever-more evident during the pandemic.

3. OK, not so much reading, but Rosa Jackson of Les Petits Farcis has begun giving online classes in Niçois cuisine.

Bonus: The Hay Festival is fully digital this year. It's ended, but I paid the (fully worth it!) 10 pound subscription to access some of the events I missed, including Mererid Hopwood's exploration of what makes language language using Welsh as a case study. It filled my nerdy little heart with joy.

Stay safe, stay INSIDE, and à bientôt !

Emily in France