2021 Instructors

Lauren Grodstein

Lauren Grodstein is the author of four novels, including the New York Times bestseller A Friend of the Family and the Washington Post Book of the Year The Explanation for Everything.  Her latest novel,  Our Short History, an Amazon.com Best Book, was published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in March, 2017. Lauren’s work has been translated into French, Turkish, German, Hebrew, and other languages, and her essays and reviews have been widely published. She directs the MFA program at Rutgers-Camden and lives in New Jersey with her husband, kids, and dogs. @laurengrodstein

Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts is the author of four books, including the bestseller Vagabonding, which has been translated into fifteen languages. His essays and reportage have appeared in such venues as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic Traveler, Sports Illustrated, and National Public Radio, as well as over 20 nonfiction anthologies, including the Best American Travel Writing series and the Best Creative Nonfiction series. Potts has taught nonfiction writing at Yale University, and he has served as the Paris Writing Workshop program director since 2005. @rolfpotts

Guest Lecturers

Because Paris attracts (and is home to) writers and artists from all over the world, the writing workshop often hosts guest lecturers, including poets, journalists, screenwriters, travel writers, editors, publishers, literary agents, photographers, filmmakers, performers, and historians. Guests in past years have included essayist Leslie Jamison, poets Major Jackson, Hala Alyan, Marvin Bell, and Peter Cooley; novelists Benjamin Percy, Binnie Kirschenbaum, Laura van den Berg, Irina Reyn, and Thomas Fox Averill; memoirists Philip Lopate, Eddy L. Harris, Elena Passarello, Dinah Lenney, and Elisabeth Eaves; literary agents Julie Barer and Gregory Messina; book critic Jessa Crispin; playwright and author John Biguenet; film composer Rolfe Kent; TV producer Jamie Schutz; travel writers Jeffrey Tayler, Elliott Hester and Rory MacLean; and bestselling author Tim Ferriss

Fellows

Program Fellows are veteran PWW students and active writers who’ve been selected to come back to Paris and help administrate many of the social and peer-advisement aspects of the summer writing program. The Program Fellow for 2021 is Julie Pesano of Sausalito, California.

To start the application process, send an email to: info@pariswritingworkshop.com