About
The Paris Vignette is an online literary journal dedicated to a form of short fiction and nonfiction called the vignette. We are based in Paris, France and publish on average one vignette every two weeks. See What’s a vignette? for our view of this art form.
The Paris Vignette is particularly, though not exclusively, interested in short-form writing with a strong sense of place, wherever that place may be, without necessarily taking place in or having a relationship with Paris.
The Paris Vignette was founded by Gary Lee Kraut, a long-time practitioner and teacher of the art form. He is also an award-winning a travel writer and the editor of France Revisited, www.francerevisited.com. In 2014 he began leading a writing workshop dedicated to vignettes.The workshop sparked a growing community of writers and fans of the vignette art form, now known as The Paris Vignette Writers Collective, which then led to the creation of this online literary journal.
The Collective, which is open for membership, has welcomed writers hailing from Ireland, England, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Israel, as well as native French who enjoy writing in English. Though this journal is based in Paris, not all writers live in or have an affiliation with the City of Light.
In addition to publishing work by the Collective, The Paris Vignette occasionally invites the participation of guest writers of our choosing. While we primarily focus on text, we are open to the possibility of publishing original audio and video vignettes or vignettes that rely on illustration through photographs or other images.
Since The Paris Vignette and The Paris Vignette Writers Collective are based in the City of Light, we continue to refer to our short-form work as “Paris vignettes.” However, just as one needn’t live in France to make French toast, be sequestered in Sweden to have Stockholm Syndrome, or live in Chicago to play Chicago blues, a Paris vignette needn’t be written in or take place in Paris.
You’ll find, however, that many of the vignettes that we publish have a sense of place. That place needn’t be Paris or elsewhere in France or even have a name. It could be anywhere: a city neighborhood, a village square, a café, a kitchen, a bedroom, a forest, a snow-covered field, a path to the beach, etc. We use the term place as the French use the term terroir in speaking about wine and food, meaning the complete set of factors and conditions that give in a distinctive character. Place is not the only element we are looking for, yet you will find in reading the work on The Paris Vignette that these vignettes are often rooted somewhere.
We encourage all readers and writers interested in quality vignettes to sign up to receive our notifications whenever new material published in The Paris Vignette along with other information concerning events, workshops, contests and publications relative to the Paris Vignette Writers Collective.
Upcoming contests, open to all, will welcome submissions from around the world. One need not be a member of the Collective to enter. Our first contest will be held later this year.