International Writing Round-Up: Books & Workshops

It's finally June. But to celebrate the official beginning of summer, Writer Abroad will have to face reality and wait until July since June is one of Switzerland's rainiest months. But all the gray skies are a good excuse to stay inside and read some of the following:

Big in China author Alan Paul (see previous Writer Abroad interview) has released a new e-Book entitled, One Way Out: An Oral History of the Allman Brothers Band. The book has been culled from hundreds of hours of interviews with the members of the Allman Brothers, as well as associated people, including Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons and many others.

Sam North, one of Zurich Writers Workshop's authors in residence for 2012, has collaborated on an animated version of The Wind In The Willows for the iPad. 

Speaking of the Zurich Writers Workshop, Writer Abroad and her fellow co-founder are discussing ideas for next year’s workshop already. If you have thoughts or authors you would like to see at a future workshop, please leave a comment below or contact Writer Abroad.

There are many writing workshops in Europe this summer and Amal Chatterjee has just announced one as well.  His weekend of prose and poetry will be held July 20-22 in Amsterdam. The fee for the course is EUR 250.

Writer Abroad is just 45 pages into The Expats by Chris Pavone, but is already hooked as she can relate to the protagonist, Kate. Kate gives up her career to move abroad with her husband and finds herself doing things like going on blind dates with other expat women and taking two hours to buy a four Euro bottle of housecleaner. Ah, the life of an expat. Anyway, the book is much more than that, but so far paints a true portrait of life abroad, probably because the author also lived overseas.